History Is Made

9-8

After 27 years, Scotland's rugby team beat the Australians by 9-8 in a dramatic, nail-biting match at Murrayfield yesterday. I have to admit it was a defence inspired performance from Scotland although the Wallabies dominated throughout.

That apart, I expect there was some dancing in the streets of Edinburgh last night.

Scotland's prize was the Hopetoun Cup.

The Fun Theory

The Swedes, in conjunction with Volvo, tried an experiment to see if they could encourage people to use the stairs rather than the escalator.

H/T to Daniel1979

Scottish Politician of the Year

John Swinney, the Scottish Finance Secretary, has been voted Scottish Politician of the Year at the 11th annual Herald Scottish Politician of the Year awards.

Seeing off his challengers, Nicola Sturgeon (Health Secretary) and Kenny MacAskill (Justice Secretary), Mr Swinney was praised by judges for his handling of the economic crisis.

Not only did he take top prize but he also received the Donald Dewar Debater of the Year award, sponsored by eaga.

Donald Martin, the Herald's heid bummer (editor in chief) said: "John Swinney has handled a very difficult brief in the teeth of the recession really well and thoroughly deserved to be named Scotland's Politician of the Year."

Congratulations John, very well deserved.

The new award for Political Contribution was won by SNP minister for Parliamentary Business Bruce Crawford, the backroom fixer who has helped a minority Government not just survive but flourish.

Source

Subrosa's Super Seven blogs

Always win when you're singing - A fisking of labour schmaltz

Bill's Comment Page - Wardog now an "ex-blog"

Charlotte Gore - The End of the Free Internet in Britain?

Eamonn Butler - East Coast nationalised

Heresy Corner - Bloggers Repel Boarders

Independent Network - The Bell Principles

Political Scot - Tie Wars and the Bain of the SNP's week

A dram of malt to:

Chef Sandwich - Chefs and Restaurant Inspectors

Ian Burrell - PCC to regulate UK bloggers?

Last of the Few - Sky TV ... Dedicated Scottish Channel

Edinburgh Trams Increase Scotland's Water Charges

Artist's impression

For those of you who don't know about the Edinburgh tram saga, here is a brief history. In 2004 the Scottish Parliament passed a Bill for two tram lines, one to Edinburgh airport, through Edinburgh. The SNP were always against this proposal as they felt the money could be better spent on other projects throughout Scotland and when they became the government in 2007 they offered alternatives to the Parliament and Alex Salmond also promised a full review of the scheme.

Meanwhile the building work continued and by this time the two lines had been reduced to one and £79m had already been spent on the project.

In June 2007 the SNP government declared they would continue to oppose the trams and the rail link to Edinburgh airport but at a vote in the Parliament the unionist parties united and defeated the government. The vote in favour was 81 to 47 and following the vote the Scottish government declared that they would support the scheme but they would not foot the bill for any extra cash should it be needed. The total cost was estimated to be £498m - £47m less than the £545m available (£500m from the Scottish government and £45m from Edinburgh council).

Engineering work, diverting electricity, gas and water supplies before the tram tracks were laid, began in July 2007.

Since then the price has increased, the project brief altered to omit part of line one and the centre of Edinburgh has become a building site. Lengthy delays caused Princes Street to be closed for months and extra money had to be spent re-opening it during August for the Festival visitors.

On 20 June this year the Edinburgh Evening News stated: 'If nothing can be done to catch up, the Edinburgh trams are not expected to start operating until Spring 2012 and are very unlikely to be delivered within their £545m budget'.

The latest news from the tram saga is that water bills are set to rise for customers across Scotland because of Edinburgh's tram project. There will be a hike in prices for the next five years to help pay for work being carried out by Scottish Water on Princes Street to divert underground pipes.

The Water Industry Commission for Scotland today said it was "unfair" that "unexpected" additional costs were being picked up by the public and not by the tram project. It seems Scottish Water have decided to replace pipes during their divertion works with the excuse they were in a worse condition than anticipated.

MSP for the Lothians Shirley-Anne Somerville, an outspoken tram critic, said: "This is another additional cost of the tram project that people have not been aware of in the past. What else is still out there that we don't know about?

"People in Edinburgh and across Scotland will be angry about potential rises in water bills for a project that is so unpopular in the city."

I have only met one person who is in favour of trams in Edinburgh and her reason was because she lived at the terminus and worked at a bank which was served by the line.

What a cheek to expect people, most who will never see a tram far less ride in one, to cough up towards the cost. Edinburgers who wanted this line should pay for it themselves. They are acting like Londoners who arrogantly expect the rest of Britain to pay for their fancies - one example being the Dome.

For those interested in Edinburgh trams there are a few sites around but this one was my main source. Calum Cashley has followed this project closely and also has some excellent posts.

Climate Change - Are We Being Deceived?

As most regular readers will know I'm a climate change sceptic. This morning one of my lovely readers sent me the link to a blog he reads regularly.

It appears the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (the provider of much of the government's information pumped out to citizens), has been hacked and many many files have been released by the hacker or persons unknown.

Start here for details of the incident and continue onto this blog to read some of the emails and comments. You should have a good picture of the situation by then.

If this is authentic information, and many think it is, then it blows the whole climate change issue to pieces.

Holyrood's Maintenance Costs Rise by 40%

Some say the Scottish Parliament is a handsome building and others quite the opposite. The building is 5 years old, yet £94,000 has been spent on repairing leaky roofs, £8,000 has gone on rewiring lights in the MSPs' accommodation block and £20,000 spent on treating wooden slats. It opened in 2004, 10 times over budget and three years behind schedule. About 900 construction faults were identified.

Parliament officials confirm that new bollards and concrete benches are to be installed at a cost of £1.5 million to make the building less vulnerable to terrorist attack. It follows the installation of a chicane near the vehicle entrance to parliament and turnstiles outside Queensberry House and the Canongate entrances earlier this year, at a cost of £524,000.

Holyrood officials have signed an eight year contract worth £13 million, to keep its windows and doors watertight. The contract also includes maintenance of lighting and electrical goods. The previous maintenance contract, which covered the first five years of the building cost £5.5 million.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said the Holyrood building had been a black hole for taxpayers' money.

"There is no way a brand new building should need this level of maintenance and a more cost-effective option should be explored. This looks like a classic example of the public sector paying over the odds for contract work."

I can't understand why either. Such was the desperation of Donald Dewar and his luvvie friends to have this particular architect and design that all other aspects of the project were thrown out the window and now the taxpayer is left with a maintenance bill which could possible build a couple of decent sized schools or more. Astonishing.