The wrong track

Was opposition to the cancellation of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link in itself a good reason for Labour's decision to vote against the Scottish Government's Budget (your report, 4 February)? Iain Gray's Labour team is no longer fighting the Glasgow North-East by-election. Here was an opportunity for it to outline a national programme for regeneration even at a time of economic stringency.

I don't doubt that access to our main airports is important in terms of the Scottish economy. In my experience, though, getting to them by public transport is now easier than ever. It is difficult to say that rail links should be given higher priority than modern apprenticeships, college places, home insulation or keeping household budgets steady by freezing the council tax. At a crucial moment Labour was made to look insular and unimaginative.

In subsequent years it may be wise for them to remember Aneurin Bevan's dictum: "The language of priorities is the religion of socialism."

Managing reductions in budgets and still holding out a vision people can identify with will be a test of Mr Gray's leadership. If he wants to be first minister in the years to come he needs to show much more gusto than he showed in Holyrood on Wednesday.

BOB TAYLOR

Shiel Court

Glenrothes, Fife

Labour MSPs have been blaming the SNP government for cancellation of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, which the SNP agrees would be a good thing if it could be afforded. But Labour MSPs, along with their Conservative and Lib-Dem allies, forced the SNP government to spend 500 million on a largely unwanted and unnecessary tram line in Edinburgh. Had Labour allowed common sense and financial prudence to prevail, rather than seeking to score a political point against the SNP by forcing the expenditure on trams, money might still have been available for GARL.

DAVID STEVENSON

Blacket Place

Edinburgh