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Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2011

17 Mar 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Bus Services Regulation

Harvie, Christopher SNP Mid Scotland and Fife Watch on SPTV

I declare that I am president of the Scottish Association for Public Transport, which has provided a memo for members setting out a useful range of pragmatic options for improvement.

I am also, as we say in Germany, auf dem Abstellgleis. I am a retiring MSP on a one-way bus pass, which will take me either to Germany and a well co-ordinated system of public transport or to Wales, which of course has a nationalised transport system. The fact that it is nationalised by the German Government is one of the ironies of modern British politics.

That takes me back to one issue that I want to stress: we are not in command of the policy decisions that we will have to take. We face one of the most major fuel and power crises that the world has ever faced, perhaps the greatest. I can remember Suez and the Yom Kippur war; this is bigger than both. I will come back to that point at the end.

To revert to the absurdities of Mrs Thatcher, in 1985, boasting about her great car economy, she said that anyone who still used public transport at 30 was a loser. In a working life of 45 years, I have never driven and have always found an adequate bus or train system to defend or develop. The result is a minimal carbon footprint and a small or medium-sized enterprise with 15 books so far plus conferences and that sort of thing, including, of course, “Fools Gold” from 1994, which is still the only history of North Sea oil and, along with the Financial Times, my bible on fuel economics and politics. My bus-pass savings, which are an appreciable amount, have all gone to the Campaign for Borders Rail to replace the X95 bus as soon as possible with a proper Borders railway.

Looking at economic efficiency, I wonder how many bus or train trips are made per individual annually in, let us say, Edinburgh. I have heard the figure of 180 mentioned. In Zurich, it is 420 by bus, train or tram. Switzerland is an industrial and tourism success story; Scotland has problems. Of course, it is possible to work on a bus or train—I wrote this speech on the X95, which deserves an Olympic medal for computer manipulation—but it is not possible to work and drive. An automotive society is, thus, inherently less than efficient.

I sympathise naturally with the SAPT line but, as I mentioned, we have a truly gigantic crisis before us. We must think and plan further ahead. The combination of nuclear disaster and mid-east instability is sending a barrel of Brent crude above $110. In 1969, it was $1.25. We are heading for what may well be a shooting war between Egypt and Libya—members can make a choice of countries throughout that most unstable region—so matters will certainly get worse. A $150 barrel is almost certain and it could get to $250 or more—anything could be possible.

We cannot do without hydrocarbons for aviation—it is impossible to think of a plane that is powered by anything other than kerosene—sea transport and much of land freight other than electric rail. Hydrocarbons are also a crucial chemical feedstock. That role is probably even more important than their travel functions. To survive—I stress the word “survive”—we must prioritise their use, and planning should start now. One may well find that, even before the election, joint Cabinet committees are set up to determine how we can handle restricted supplies.

In landward areas, a fuel-price rebate or regulator is necessary, but we may have to link it to car sharing. We cannot rule out rationing.

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Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2011

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