Forth Bridge Funding

Apologies to anyone who has been checking in to read my musings, but the mood to blog seemed to escape me over the last wee while.

However, I feel inspired to write about what seems to be the hypocrisy inherent in the UK government position in relation to the financing of the new Forth Road Bridge. Apparently they refuse to consider the Scottish Government's proposal to advance funding for the bridge over a twenty year period. Given the current constitutional settlement doesn't endow the Scottish Government with powers over prudential borrowing, currently they have to ask the permission of the UK government. Permission that has been denied on the grounds that you can't "bring forward spending 15 or 20 years out, in budgets that haven't been allocated".

But isn't that exactly what the New Labour inspired PPP scheme has done? Over the next twenty or so years, the combined UK PPP debt is over £200billion. This was money that was committed to by previous administrations out of budgets yet to be allocated. Soon the Scottish Government's PPP liabilities will be £1billion per annum.

Furthermore, unlike the reasonable SNP proposal, this is money that is committed years in advance to line the pockets of private companies. Yet PPP is the very system that the UK government now proposes is utilised for the construction of the bridge.

Seems that their reluctance to consider the proposal of the Scottish Government has a lot more to do with politicking than what is in the best interests of Scotland.