SNP's toll toil

I recently met a Glasgow SNP councillor who was waxing loquacious on the Irish motorway system.

Its superiority over our own he put down, naturally, to independence, but I suggested it might also reflect the fact that the Irish government had partly paid for its motorways through tolls at strategic river crossings. The Irish railway network has also grown rapidly in recent years and, despite Ireland's economic problems, major developments such as Dublin tram extensions are still proceeding. By contrast GARL may be the first of many rail projects sacrificed to the all-consuming Forth Second Crossing.

My friend explained that an SNP government would never re-introduce tolls because they were unfair. This puts a proud wannabee-independent Scotland in the league of great European nations like Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Malta etc. Most other European governments think otherwise, but then the SNP had an election promise to honour.

The SNP government has broken other election promises, like the fatuous local income tax and the reduction of class sizes to 18, and the nation has been the better for it. Maybe on tolls it is time to admit they got it wrong.

JOHN McMASTER

Manse Road

Glasgow