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Meeting of the Parliament 23 February 2012

23 Feb 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Rail Services (Consultation)

Dornan, James SNP Glasgow Cathcart Watch on SPTV

I would love to, but I have only four minutes.

Why does the Labour Party not bring something positive to the table? Where are its plans for the railways in Scotland? Does it have any? I thought not. It does not have a policy or a constructive suggestion. It has nothing. Richard Baker’s motion talks about “concerns expressed in Glasgow” about

“the future of 11 railway stations”.

The minister has told us that those 11 stations have been named because someone asked for the names. I am sure that we are all keen to know who that was and how it came about. It has come to my attention that, at a public meeting that was arranged by my local Labour member of Parliament, that mystery person asked the question. We all know him: he is the defeated Labour candidate who did not see his own downfall coming when it was staring him in the face.

I am not suggesting for a moment that this is a set-up—heaven forfend—but it has involved a Labour MP arranging a meeting to discuss the consultation, a member of the public asking for stations to be named and, once they were named, Labour running its council election campaign around that. At the very least, it is political opportunism of the worst kind.

As Labour scrabbles around for a bandwagon to jump on—or create—the SNP continues to invest in Scotland’s rail services. Our rail network receives a higher public subsidy than any network elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Indeed, the recent budget passed by this Parliament increased expenditure on rail services and on maintaining the current network.

The SNP’s record on transport is one to be proud of, especially in Glasgow. That is demonstrated by our additional investment in the Glasgow subway and our commitment to fastlink, which will be an important piece of infrastructure when we host the Commonwealth games. The new Southern general hospital is another huge investment in Glasgow by this Scottish Government. There are countless other examples, which I am sure my colleagues will mention.

We have even put on an extra five trains a day between Glasgow and Dundee. I realise that Labour members do not have much reason to visit Dundee any more, but they have to accept that that is not the behaviour of a Government that does not recognise the importance of railway services.

Labour’s petition against the rail 2014 consultation states:

“I am against many of the changes proposed to Scotland’s railway network.”

It does not specify a single change, and I am sure that I am not the only person who read that and thought of Father Dougal standing outside the cinema in an episode of “Father Ted”, chanting, “Down with this sort of thing.” It is completely meaningless and shows the campaign for precisely what it is—an electioneering tool for May. Labour knows that there is no threat and wants to be able to claim the credit for changing the minister’s mind when he confirms that. That will not work.

Presiding Officer, if you invited me to a party—I await that call—and I said that I had no plan or intention to turn up, but then did, your response would be, “You told me you weren’t coming.” No plans and no intentions means not happening—in this case, no station closures.

Benjamin Franklin once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Clearly, the Labour Party is so desperate that it is willing to play the politics of the madhouse. It has no ideas, no vision and no policies, so all that it is left with is the politics of negativity, carping from the sidelines and spreading fear in local communities. I have—

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Meeting of the Parliament 23 February 2012

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