Look on down from the Bridge
It’s Friday night, readers. Let’s kick back with a little history.
1995: Scottish Labour MP Alistair (now Baron) Darling rages furiously against the idea of a new road bridge across the River Forth.
1997: Within a few weeks of being elected to power at Westminster, the new Labour government scraps Conservative plans for a second bridge costing £150m. (Which we can surmise from other examples would have meant a real cost of around £700m.)
1999: The Scottish Parliament is reconvened. The UK government sends it a large sum of money each year (the “block grant”) with which to pay for devolved public services like health, education and transport infrastructure.
2003-7: The Scottish Executive, under the control of Labour and its junior coalition partners the Lib Dems, returns hundreds of millions of pounds of the block grant to the Treasury in London every year, unable to think of anything to spend it on.
2005-6: During this time, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority issues increasingly urgent calls for a replacement Forth road crossing to be built (despite the protestations of its own board members on the Lothian side of the river), with a projected cost of £700m, warning that the existing bridge could have to close down by 2015.
The Labour-run Executive, with more than twice that much money sitting in the bank unspent, ignores their cries, saying it’s “too early to make a decision”.
2007: A minority SNP government comes to power at Holyrood. After conducting a study to assess the options for a new crossing, it swiftly announces that a second road bridge will be built alongside the original.
2009: The Labour government at Westminster continues trying to obstruct and delay the construction of the new bridge by refusing the Scottish Government permission to advance cash from future capital budgets, telling finance secretary John Swinney to instead “build up a big underspend” – something which would take several years.
2010: After the initial planning and consultation stages, during which numerous environmental groups strongly object to the project, legislation to begin construction is finally passed by the Parliament in 2010, and work begins the next year.
The final cost of the bridge, to be built with public funds rather than an expensive PFI deal, is estimated at £1.45bn – almost exactly the amount that the previous Labour administration had returned unspent to Westminster by the middle of 2006.
2015: A year before the new crossing is due to open, a technical fault necessitates the closure of the existing bridge for several weeks, causing transport chaos as traffic is diverted over long distances and commuters cram into packed trains.
Scottish Labour – having first bitterly opposed a second bridge being built at all and then dragged their heels over it for two entire Parliaments while sitting on a huge pile of unspent money, thereby delaying a new crossing that would otherwise have been fully operational by the time the old one broke down – furiously blame the SNP for the closure and demand an inquiry into how this situation could possibly have arisen.
A nation rolls its eyes, wearily.
There’s only one answer…..Essenpee Bad …..
lying, mendacious, self serving, two faced feckers.
…and wait to hear what I think of SLab.
Excellent!
Aye Rev but dont you know there was never a Labour Exec time only started when the SNP got into power so all of that is irrelevant.
Do these muppets really think that the most engaged political electorate ever is not looking at what was and what is.
They will pay dearly for their attempt to pass the buck at the ballot box.
“A nation rolls its eyes, wearily.”
BRILLIANT!
8=)
Yeah, you have to wonder what their motives were back then, sending money back to the treasury.
So many things they could have spent the money on tomake life better here.
You would think they were trying to obstruct Scottish life from improvement of any kind.
I agree with Labour on this one and blame the SNP for not getting into power sooner.
That can’t be true if it is then I call out labour and liberals as absolute liars a disgrace a parcel of rouges , a coven of witches, a sleaze ball assembly, hypocrite, fools, disgrace to the term Scottish, and absolutely unelectable, massy Ferguson drivers of distinction ! And the worst thing you can imagine and then some!
Thanks STU for setting out the financial and political situation (which Labour etc will never accept).
I’ve always wondered what happened to the money which “we” returned to London. Were we able to get it back, grudgingly or otherwise?
Shocking that not one of our broadcasters or numerous newspapers deem fit to inform the public of this or that Feta was responsible for bridge repairs until june 2015
Quite.
So any time SLAB mention bridges in future the appropriate response from now on is STFU.
We know they are all reading this.
Friday night farce, nice!
That is quite a revelation to me … Labour handed back a massive bucket load of OUR money as if there was nothing needing sorted out in Scotland!
Meanwhile they saddled us with dodgy PFI deals for decades ahead.
Gross incompetence or what?
And, people still vote for these clowns?
Would a bridge be getting built if the SNP had not won 2007 or 2011?
I doubt it very much, and I imagine Labour would have tolled its way out of the problem.
At FMQs Nicola Sturgeon said about the bridge
“…did have the foresight to know that an ageing structure did need replaced”
Perhaps she really meant the Labour Party!
The Scottish National Party- Stronger for Scotland
Unionist tossers!
Labours strategy laid bare!
Inflict endemic poverty and reap the votes!
Indebt a Nation for shareholder profit, personal enrichment and sparkly baubles with privileges!
Hobble a nations ambition and handicap any competition.
Better out than in I suppose!
I wonder if that wankbubble kevverage included that 1.5 billion in any of his shitty graphs. And his pal Dr Scott ‘Pishtalker’ Arthur could do a new pishy timeline for his yoon loons..
sock it to em
It may be best for the opposition parties at Holyrood to sit in silence. All of their SNP bad accusations always end up showing them up. Whenever they accuse, it ends up with the true facts coming out and the truth does them no favours. Henchmen and women of our imperial masters.
Yet more proof that over the past fifty years Labour (old or new, it makes no difference), have been and still are the real enemy of the people of Scotland. Grind the bastards down.
That’s the inquiry, done and dusted. Well done, quick work.
Listening to Labour, every day is a TFIF day!
Many voices that complained about the possibility of a bridge being commissioned for eg. Friends of the Earth and Greens are awfy quiet now.
Labour, what next in the “arse-nal” of lies, smears and inventions?
Just as well it wasnt started on Labours watch as it would have cost twice as much, been over budget and problems galore would have surface, oh an tolls would have been extortionate as they would still apply
I would actually encourage the SNP to hold an enquiry.
This would hopefully demonstrate to the whole nation exactly what you have said in this blog
Preferably before the next election.
We will never return to the box! Labour’s days of power are finished! Freedom! Vote Snp,Snp in May.
Hahahaha and no mention of the budget for maintenance being cut by 65%, by the SNP!
I wonder why?
Still who to believe?
The Engineers, none of whom have come out in support of the SNP’s stance on this.
OR
SNP Politicians, and their legions of keyboard monkeys…
It’s a tough call…
Ach Rev, you are too good at this.
Your stalker, the BritNat shyster Dr. Scott, and his faithful disciple, Stuart the troll, will hardly be able to keep up with you.
Yeah, pretty much.
Sooooo in your own time Labour. Just why was construction on a new crossing was opposed?
aging democratic structure beyond repair. Westminster houses of parliament.house of ill repute.
We will win, never forget that, we will work our asses off. Labour is dead apart from a rump of aging supporters. The tory’s are a party of the living dead in Scotland. The fibdems are finished. The world is our oyster. Seize the opportunity we will win.
Hood stuff for an Inquiry. Labour should be careful what they wish for.
can your single braincell stuart understand that the block grant has been slashed by westminster and unlike your Labour pals the SNP know there is no magic money tree and have had to make difficult spending cuts.
Now do us a favour go and read a book or something to improve your intelligence,the westminster way of blaming who is in power is no longer credible to the majority of the Scottish electorate.
Now go give your pal Arther a blowjob as you seem to worship the ground he walks on,me as old Labour i see him and his ilk as the reason why Labour are pointless now,i bet you call yourself a socialist as well while following right wing tories who infiltrated Labour back in the late 70`s,you are a total fanny.
Seanair, Yes, John Swinney got the money back and I’m pretty sure it was grudged. I think it came back over several years, 08,09,10 something like that
My wife who doesn’t even know who Alistair Carmichael IS, let alone that he’s just been through a court case, is getting really fed up about the Yoonionist pish about the bridge on Reporting Scotland every night. This is another great recruiting sergeant for the SNP.
Another combination of punches from the Rev Campbell and Labour are back on the ropes. Bam, Bam, Bam, Slam! Arms flailing everywhere in the hope of a lucky punch but to no avail, they are taking some serious damage. Crash! Down on the canvas again and the referee starts the count. How much more punishment can they take? Surely someone will humanely throw in the towel, or the old dog just won’t get up anymore.
It is never a good idea to engage with a troll, but Stuart a way and iron your sash!
One to keep an eye on is the restoration of the Houses Of Parliament which according to the beeb could cost £5.7 billion and take 32 years. So it’ll probably cost more and take longer then. People in glass houses ….
link to bbc.com
We are going to win, never forget that. We will be a nation again!
@Ian 10.30
Away and iron yer sash , aye but remember to take it off first….
On second thoughts dinnae
@Mogabee
Deflection.
The whole faux outrage bollox is pure deflection from their own failure.
They were told a replacement was required and chose to oppose the action required.
The question they need to answer is why?
Peter, better suggestion hope he follows through.
Hi Iain.
“We will be a nation again!”
For you…
link to youtube.com
Googled, ‘how to kill a troll’
“Well there weakness is fire magic or anything that deals fire damage. Once hit with a fire spell then they will temporarily lose the ability to regenerate. You best bet is to use a sneak attack with either a normal bow or an enchanted one that deals fire damage.”
Right … {puzzled} …. better idea, a majority votes YES next time, that should shut them up!
Wee Stuart had nae luck on the last thread no-one takes his bait hes obviously ill informed,uneducated and if brains were dominoes hed be chappin!
Nailed them Stuart.
Thanks for doing all the donkey work
Now surely BBC and Daily Record will want the people of Scotland to know who has really let Scotland down in the Bridgegate affair.Pffft !
This case perfectly encapsulates the travesty of how Scottish Unionist governance devastates Scotland and it’s a pity we can’t get it out to more people.
This is a major infrastructure and logistics problem that would tax any countries government,
I would just like to thank the great skill and leadership of Nicola and Derek Mackay for getting on with fixing it as quickly and safely as possible and minimising as much as they can the frustration of comuters and businesses that use the Bridge.
In this case it would be good if the Yoons and the Hacks got behind Nicola,for the good of Scotland.
Stuart’s up late tonight…..Ah, Friday,Nae school ra morra.
It simply doesn’t matter how you present the actual facts of the situation, they will simply deny, deny, deny and spin, spin, spin their way out of any blame and, at the same time, project all of the fault onto the SNP government.
These Uninonists are mendacious so-and-sos who will do anything to twist reality and avoid responsibility for the major role they played in this saga. They know damn fine that the responsbility for this mess lies at ther door. But they will never admit it. But we know and they seem to keep forgetting about the internet/social media where we all inform each other of the reality of these issues.
These Unionist parties are utterly incapable of accepting blame/responsibility for their actions. And that is a big part of the reason why the people of Sotland can never afford to vote them into power and will never vote them into power again. Scotland needs a grown-up party in government, a government that accepts responsibilty for its actions. In short, an SNP government.
I’m a bit late to the discussion and haven’t read the last article but I thought I’d leave this here.
The problems with the bridge of course are structural, not political. So structural problems are being magically turned into political issues.
Anyone with any sense would see through this bullshit other than those with UKOK tinted eyes.
The issue with the bridge is simply one of fatigue, that is stress in the structural parts moving from a low stress to a higher stress over time.
Think of how to break a piece of metal like a sparkler or a coat hanger, you bend it back and forward repeatedly until it eventually snaps. This of course is understood by designers and is taken account of in the design.
However, the original design failed to take account of the rise in traffic and the weight of traffic that now use the bridge.
Result simply is that that stresses are higher than those designed for and the fatigue life has been reduced.
Engineers would have known this, and surely did advise the government of the day. It would seem to me as an outsider looking in that this was in fact the case.
The SNP acted on that advise and should be applauded for doing so.
Stufart: It’s a tough call…
Good old US colloquialism. Watching too many cheap American movies rots the brain, but only if you have one.
Nice one Stu.
“… keyboard monkeys…”
I’d mucg rather be a cybernat than a sabernat any day of the week – and twice on Saturdays. What escapes your pea brain is that my keyboard is my weapon of choice whereas your lot prefer the saber (and the bomb).
I use words, you use swords.
My keyboard is infinitely mightier than your silly sword, you nugget. Now away and iron your sash. And mind to take the butcher’s apron off when you iron that. Wouldn’t want you – oh, never mind.
So the delay meant that the price we should have paid rose to £1.45b from £700m. What a saving. Not.
I dread to think what it would cost if the Scottish Government was just starting out now with planning for a new crossing.
SNP bad? No! The SNP is BADASS!
I’ll never understand No voters. Why do they want to live in a country with no infrastructure? They seem to be our equivalent of Amish people. Look at Canary Wharf, Crossrail, Millennium Dome… why do they not want Aberdeen to be like Dubai or Penicuik like Singapore? It could all be possible with our oil wealth. Why do Proudscotsbut want to give our natural wealth away to a neighbouring country and live in squalour?
2007: The SNP comes to power. After conducting a study to assess the options for a new crossing, it swiftly announces that a second road bridge will be built alongside the original.
Slabour’s real problem is SNP making logic based decisions like building a second bridge. SLabour clearly made decisions based on UKOK unionist bullshit basically.
SLab said no new Forth bridge but the A9 Perth to Inverness is a death trap that needed dualing at least and could have been a huge boost to the Highlands. Don’t get me started on Europe’s oil capitol Aberdeen Victorian road network, for horses and carts.
When you come down the A90 into Aberdeen, you cross this to get into the city
link to scotlandsoldestbridges.co.uk
Aberdeen’s still under unionist SLab control.
Maybe we should be grateful that the Labour party in control of the then “Scottish Executive” did not start the project, otherwise we would have been crippled with even more PPI costs and the £1.45bn it has cost would have been considerably more even although the project would have started some years earlier.
“Maybe we should be grateful that the Labour party in control of the then “Scottish Executive” did not start the project, otherwise we would have been crippled with even more PPI costs and the £1.45bn it has cost would have been considerably more even although the project would have started some years earlier.”
You mean PFI. PPI is what you get on your credit card repayments. But as the article notes, based on previous examples involving similar sums, a PFI bridge would probably have ended up costing in the region of £700-750m.
Briandoonthetoon, that fair cheered me up. We are going to win and be a nation again.
STV tonight it seems the decision was made by 3 SNP, 2 Lab, 1 LibDem not to do the renewal. I think it was a LibDemmer saying (telling the truth for a change!!), “with the benefit of hindsight”. Good for him. I name him a “not Carmichael”.
But from what I read the decision was the right one at the time, and even with hindsight the bridge lasted 5 years more, the closure will be shorter, weeks instead of months, the cost will be less, and then there’s the new crossing to come when the FRB can be repaired properly, at lesiure, and also cheaper.
How many ‘Gates’ are we going to get from the gits?
Frenchgate, Bridgegate what next? NHSgate? Obesegate? Trumpgate?
Who knows?
Luckily the grown-up, pro-Scotland and logically based administration of the SNP are operating at a level miles above this arrested adolescent bubble which Slab seems incapable of leaving.
The last time I remember them responding to such infantile posturing, if only at a local level, was when they moved their Perth office back in the 70s, from a street called Watergate.
Jobs for life were overturned in 2015
Jobs for life will be overturned in 2016
Jobs for life will be overturned in 2017
What is it about Bridges and Trolls?
So Labour regularly sent unspent money back to the Treasury, and now the SNP get hammered regularly for not spending the entire budget but keeping some in hand.
….. AND breathe …..
It would be really nice to have some adult opposition in Holyrood.
Heed
Iv been living up here for 2yrs now and cant understand why Aberdeen is in the mess it is. I ask the locals and they cant understand while wee Willie Young blames the bad SNP Gov for using Aberdeen as a cash cow?????
Unionists do not have vision, the only ambition they have is to line their own pockets and be the big fish in the wee pond. The only way they can do that is by support from the bigger pond next door and the only way to get that support is by doing what they are told. This does not bother them because they think they look good in front of us “smaller” fish.
People are complaining that its too late for the AWPR, Im baffled by this and tell them its never too late to invest in infrastructure, its never too late to invest in your city and its never too late to invest in your country.
Time is running out for Young and his cronies. People see the by-pass, the rail net work improvements, the up grading of the A96 and who is making it happen.
I bet the Labour msp’s are bricking it at the thought of electoral oblivion and subsequent unemployment. The councillors underpants would be a gruesome sight to behold.
Fran says:
12 December, 2015 at 12:13 am
Heed
Iv been living up here for 2yrs now and cant understand why Aberdeen is in the mess it is.
Nothing makes sense about UKOK Aberdeen and roads. Pick Aberdeen as North Sea oil capital, build/upgrade Dyce airport with no public transport access, one jammed road blocked solid by Hadigan roundabout, put the airport terminal on the other side of the runway from the only railway station to Aberdeen, is a good start to begin to ask what the fcuk are they up to?
Aberdeen harbour’s the last big busy oil supply port in Scotland yet its murder to get to, down same ancient clogged roads. Build big oil industrial estates on edge of the city, again, miles of traffic Q’s with no road upgrades, build big new housing estates, outside Aberdeen, no new roads, no public transport to any of them, AWPR blocked for decades by rich red/blue tories fighting off infrastructure development that England takes for granted, is a just the start…
Short sighted, get rich quick dysfunction is probably a fair description to use, when it comes to the unionist domination of Aberdeen and then across the whole of Scotland.
It occurs to me that Slab and their LibDem partners missed a trick back when they where in power. Instead of sending that money back to the Treasury, they could’ve used it to start a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Scotland! It would’ve given them another stick to beat the SNP with “Look, you don’t need independence to create an oil fund!”, but I guess they where stuck in a mind-set whereby Scotland needed England to help keep it on the straight and narrow? (And Scotland having an oil fund whilst England was hocked up to it’s eyeballs might have made Gordon Brown look somewhat less prudent than he wanted?)
Of course, Labour (in general) had a rather “flexible” definition of what constituted an investment at that time so I have my doubts as to what they’d have done with the money anyway …
Good article by Alex Salmond in the courier.
I remember all the “Salmond’s Folly” quips when a name was needed for the new bridge.
link to thecourier.co.uk
From what I understand, the type of fracture is unpredictable and could have happened anywhere when the structure is carrying so much excess load. The engineers would have to reinforce the entire framework to be sure this couldn’t happen.
So building the new bridge was the responsible long term solution. Chances are the old bridge will still need major work at some point, but with 2 bridges there is a chance to divert traffic far more easily.
It’s sickening reading the article above, when you consider Labours huge underspend could have paid for it. Just like their rip-off PFI schemes, they preferred to kick the problem down the road.
I visit friends in Fife (Auchtertool) once or twice a month. I made the journey on Tuesday last. No problem I thought as I sometimes do the journey via Kincardine bridge just to break the monotony of the M8.
Everything was going as expected until that is I reached the roundabout just south of Kincardine bridge. Busses and HGVs only on the bridge all other traffic diverted over the Clackmannanshire bridge and there were many policemen there to make sure you didn’t cheat.
This diversion takes you north along the A977 all the way to freakin Powmill before turning right on the backroad that takes you past Knockhill before a left turn towards Kelty where you join the M9 southbound and join the A92 (Kirkcaldy) bypass. Now granted the rain was about as bad as it gets at the time but I managed to miss the right turn at Powmill and didn’t realise until I got to Crook of Devon. My advice to anyone considering this journey is “gonyno” Having said that I understand that the HGV & Busses only on Kincardine bridge and the A985 restrictions will be lifted at the weekends.
Oh and while I’m here a wee message to Transport Scotland. How about investing in some big lightie up “Diversion” signs.
Kenny says:
11 December, 2015 at 11:33 pm
I’ll never understand No voters. Why do they want to live in a country with no infrastructure? They seem to be our equivalent of Amish people. Look at Canary Wharf, Crossrail, Millennium Dome… why do they not want Aberdeen to be like Dubai or Penicuik like Singapore? It could all be possible with our oil wealth.
—–
Yep, Aberdeen or Dundee or Leith could have been like a northern Abu Dhabi if the oil wealth had stayed here !
link to openwaternoumea.com
In another world, TV shows could be giving Apprentice intro style flyovers of Scotland’s Shard-like skyscrapers..
In reality, while billions were pumped into London we still didn’t have a dual carriageway A9 up the centre of Scotland.
The dependents have a sheer brass neck banging on about a £6 billion oil revenue shortfall this year, when Norway has built up a £600 billion oil fund surplus from running their own affairs.
Just like the prudent thing to do was to press ahead with a new Forth bridge, the responsible strategy was to treat oil as a temporary bonus, and use it to build up infrastructure or wealth for the future.
To Ian Wood’s credit he saw his rejected Aberdeen garden scheme along the same lines. A kick-start to prepare Aberdeen as a modern vibrant city for when the oil started to decline. Still can’t believe that Labour council turned down £80 million donations. What an absolute joke.
The Scottish Government has more than enough history with transport improvements to swat off any smear from the UKOK zoomers.
M74 extension in Glasgow, the upgrades to various accident blackspots on the A90 to Aberdeen, the Borders railway re-opening, the beginning of the A9 dualling are some that spring to mind.
The one that was short sighted was the dropping of the Glasgow Airport rail extension – also a pity that the Edinburgh trams were so over budget that they stopped them short of the original plan.
I do agree with Fran and others – Aberdeen is an absolute disgrace when you look at the transport system. The Aberdeen to Peterhead / Fraserburgh road is and absolute nightmare – the rail line should be re-opened as a priority.
It really used to make my blood boil that it would take me to 45 minutes (on a good day) to get from the airport to the Haudagain roundabout (a distance of some 8 miles) and then 2 hours to drive the next 140 to get home. And don’t even get me started about those robbing Taxi Drivers in the Granite city !
And let us not forget that Stagecoach trialled a hovercraft from Kirkcaldy to Edinburgh – Edinburgh council were the ones that refused that one. Just think of the reduction in journey times if they could somehow make that route pernament and get the trams running all the way to the Edinburgh docking point.
I got caught in the rain today whilst walking from the entrance to a farm shop/cafe back to my car.
Bloody SNP!
Thank God we all voted No – Can you imagine what the weather would be like of Scotland was independent?
My family have been in “haulage” in Aberdeenshire since the horse n cert , that does not make me an expert .
FRB designed / built mid 60’s
In this era:
Most HGV were the flat bed 20ton 4 wheelers , yes there were single chassis 6 & 8 wheelers a few Artic 4 wheeled cabs with a single ax trailer but not many.
Today it’s nearly all these 38/40/44 ton monsters , everywhere. Added to this , the constant line in both directions over the bridge.
Nae need for the brain o Britain to appreciate how much the current FRB has been hammered!
Rev S Campbell has done his master piece here verifying the facts on the timeline. No need for an inquiry it’s all there. Although I agree that it would be another self inflicted “egging” for SLab if there is an inquiry.
Rev , I don’t care if you do feck all ’till next year as this is one of your best !
Re: Kenny@11.33pm
Kenny not sure about Dubai, but you are correct in that Scotland should and could be a hugely more prosperous country with fantastic infrastructure and transport connections. We however want to see a much more equal, environmentally sound and forward looking country.
I was reading an old email from my no voting friends just last week, which they sent days before Indy ref, having just travelled around Norway, and Finland. The email still shocks me, they said, ‘ if only Scotland could be like Norway’. I kid you not. I keep the email as an example of stupidity and ignorance of the privileged no voters. Don’t see them much now, their choice, funnily enough.
Al dossary , Balinluig Junction upgrade opened circa 2008 @£15m
It’s the wonder , the wonder , the wonder o the Essenpeee !
OT Apparently the Oil is its lowest since 2009 . Pentland Firth about to go live with the sub sea turbines. Lucky we have the broad shoulder of the U.K. To take it and distribute for us. We couldna manage to cope !
This is a fantastic piece Stu. Very well said!
The mention of Norway takes me back. I spent some 14 months in Haugesund. This was what opened my eyes to how poor the quality of life was in the UK.
140 km journey Bergen – Haugesund, 3 hours by bus (including 2 ferry trips on comfortable, modern catamaran ferries). Stavanger – Haugesund, 2 hours by bus, including 20 minute ferry also.
The Norwegians were looking at a 25km subsea tunnel to replace the ferry on the latter route, planning to begin this year.
It is not the most densely populated country in Europe, but it is a country run for the benefit if it’s people, not the corporations.
The Unionist zoomers should spend some time living and working in Europe, it puts UKOK life into perspective.
Pure dead brilliant.
‘…and if brains were dominoes hed be chappin!’
Laugh out loud funny…so stealing that peter
Don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but fuck the Labour party and all who sail in her!
That is all.And relax.
There absolutely should be a public enquiry – it will shine a light on the failures of previous administrations (both Holyrood & Westminster) and will go quite a way to negating the whole “SNPBad” narrative being peddled as usual by the Unionist Media.
Who knows, it might even convince some of the “soft Noes” to look beyond the headlines for a change.
Dear “Scottish” Labour, be careful what you wish for…
Iain says
“It is never a good idea to engage with a troll, but Stuart a way and iron your sash!”
Nae need tae tak it aff.
___________________________________________________________
“Away and iron yer sash , aye but remember to take it off first….
On second thoughts dinnae”
Ach Aa micht huv bliddy guessed.
_________________________________________________________
There’s something wrong with that picture Stu,
the support piles that come out of the water are mostly on the south side, not on the North side as the picture shows (only two on the north side before the first main tower) and they’re not parallel as the artist impression shows but V-shaped, the picturs back tae front
Just sayin sa’ll
How the f…..
Is this site under attack?
jdman @8.14.
I would not rush to chastise the Rev for using that particular picture, which I have seen used in newspapers before.
This is the “artist’s impression” of how the estuary will look, after the Queensferry Bridge is built.
Since they are still building the thing, the Rev can hardly produce a picture showing three complete bridges. Also, since the picture was mocked-up before work had even started, a wee mistake can be allowed, surely.
Ah wunner whit administration wiz responsible furr this fiasco!
Collapse of No.2 Parkhouse Road Overbridge on the 26th April 1953 at Ardrossan in the “Scottish Region British Railways”
link to railwaysarchive.co.uk
Thank feck naebuddy wiz hurt, eh! Lucky escape furr yon SNP, eh!
Pheeeeeeeeeewwwww!!!
Wow! Properly researched journalism. Meanwhile in the Day-lie Rangers …Transport minister Derek Mackay accused of lying over Forth Road bridge repairs…
Never mind the facts. SNP BAD
@jdman
s this site under attack?
The url logo has been showing the V one for a few days now.
Simon Johnstone wrote in the Telegraph; “A train from the south of England has been brought into Scotland in attempt to spare the SNP’s blushes amid the ongoing travel chaos caused by the Forth Road Bridge closure.”……”Spare the SNP’s blushes!?”. That’s right, you read right……It’s the SNP’s fault.
S/M @ 8.29
The trouble is, that slack attitude Socrates leads to catastrophe, can you imagine how much Scott Arthur could make of that if he see’s that the bridge is back to front so its running south to north instead of north to south, he’d have a bleedin field day!
Im sure Stu knows enough gaming Imagineers who can, at least get it right!
Great summary, which is why they should get their enquiry.
I was listening to FMQs on Wed., and thought Ruth was very subdued on the bridge, after the Kez hysteria.
Ruth has done her homework. Her only point was there should be capital coming our way, and would it go to the bridge to repair until the new one opens.
Fair comment, but not her decision, as knowing how canny Swinney is, it’s all worked out.
I was unfortunately watching a negative report from our state broadcaster. I’m not holding my breath waiting for the BBC to state Labour’s role in feta and Jack McConnell handing back 1.5 billion pounds to westminster.
When you look at the old and the new bridge designs in the picture above, the old road bridge does seem to have an extremely long gap between the main supports.
Add to that, the extra weight it has had to take over the years, you can understand why certain points were going to give way.
The cracks were caused by a design fault.
Its all they have got. From now on in , any one of our duly elected SNP mp or SNP msp so much as farts everyone of the unionist gang join in an incoherant attack on them and the leadership. The Branch office and The Lie Dems do not have politicians , they are obese with self serving , morally bankrupt con artists. PFI schools , PFI hospitals.
They have belittled Scotland , her people at every opportunity . Lets forget them for a minute and think of us, let us put us out of this misery , give them a true one party nation which they eternally bleat on about, deliver them not one single seat in May. Vote Snp – Snp.
PS. Is it my wide screen telly or is Jackie Baillie really that size?
“Inspection failures before Ayrshire derailment”
link to archive.is
“Heavy corrosion had so significantly weakened these girders that they were no longer able to carry the loading from trains that were permitted to run over the bridge.”
“Corroded parts of the bridge were not fully repaired when the bridge was waterproofed in 1987.”
“Although the bridge had previously been inspected, the style of construction of the bridge meant this internal main girder was not open to inspection.”
Awe, right, it’s the SNP’s fault, the b@$t@rd$!
Spot on as usual, Rev. Yet the BritNat media, including the bbc, will continue to give airtime to unionist accusations and conveniently forget/refuse to relate the Labour party’s disgraceful roll in all of this. There may be cracks in the road bridge but it’s nothing compared to the fundiliymundily-unsound, rotting, rusting, so-called united kingdom.
The new Bridge (and the Old Bridge) are brilliant, The original rail bridge Is one of the World’s great achievement. A tribute to Scotland’s great engineering traditions.
Sydney Harbour Bridge one of the world’s greatest acheivement was build with Scottish involvement. Scottish architectural firm were involved in the design. A Glasgow firm. Stonemasons from Aberdeen cut the granite. They emigrated from the North East. They had a small village beside the quarry. Moruya. Two hours from Sydney. They had a school and a Scottish country band. The boats were built that transported the stone to Sydney. The granite stones formed the base. When the Bridge was opened it was a Pipe Band that led the way. Italian masons were also involved.
Scottish Engineering and invention has shaped the world. Chinese – ‘Scotland the land of Discovery’ 40Million diaspora. The first country in the world to have tertiary (Church) Education. Under the terms of the of the Act of Union Scotland has a separate education system forever. The The geographical attibutes of the Clyde made Engineering a major sector in Scotland.
The Oil & Gas sector is a major world technology innovation. The Tories have deliberately
destroyed the Oil sector, because of the tax take. 50% of Production and 25%+ tax. = 75%. Thousands of jobs have been lost. The Tories have banned coal production. The Tories have stopped investment in Renewables. More Oil, Gas and Coal has to be imported increasing the balance of payments deficit and increasing the debt.
The Tories are spending £25Billion of borrowed Chinese funding, building Hinkley Power Station,. to provide 7% of fuel. It will be years late and over budget, near the sea. A disaster waiting to happen. The waste will be exported to Africa. Wasting £Billions of public money which could be better spent. A tribal barrage at the Humber would cost £9Billion, but was cancelled.
OT Labour have published their short lists for the regional lists. Their members will vote on order with the final result ‘zipping’ male and female alternately.
Seems democratic. HOWEVER Kezia Dugdale and Alex Rowley have been given top slots in their respective lists prior to voting. That isn’t at all democratic. Surely (like the SNP) it should be up to members to decide if those two are worth top slot?
Typical Labour. Never afraid to compromise on democracy.
The more you learn about Labour, the more you realise the only thing they have is the ability to fool people.
Not exactly a quality to be proud of. Thankfully people are wising up to them, and their days are now well and truly numbered.
SNP x 2.
I am truly fed up with “blame politics”. Does nobody do constructive politics any more?.
Regardless of which party you support or whether or not you support independence, the object of it all is to make Scotland a better place to live.
Whilst the SNP carry out that remit,the rest run round bemoaning everything they can find to taint the image of even good initiatives.
The Bridge,the budget,education, the NHS,energy. Everything comes under criticism no matter how good
An article this morning has Labour stating staff morale is at an all time low in the NHS ,even though only 30% of staff filled in the survey.
I know for a fact this is rubbish.I cannot say how or why I know at this time ,but it is rubbish. Staff engagement levels are in the top percentile across most of Scotland,and some are truly exceptional,that International companies would be proud of.
I had thought that if Scotland became independent in future, then I could revert to my old preference of voting Labour. However having listened and observed their priorities, that will never be an option again. They add nothing to the debate or to the building of our country.They are destroyers and wreckers hell bent on only obtaining progress for themselves.
Wings at his best.
Clear. Uses facts. Puts them together. Reveals the truth.
Thanks.
Any chance we can recharge Scottish Labour for cost to Scottish economy for Their failure to plan effectively?
Its dreadful presenting facts or dredging up labour’s history on issues such as the Forth Road bridge.
Labour don’t like being faced with facts or with their
history of incompetence or inaction.
Instead everyone should be blaming the Tories and the SNP Scottish Government, because Labour have never been responsible for anything that’s bad or has gone wrong, that’s the Labour way.
I am seeing a common theme with Labour. When they have the power and opportunity to making changes, improve people’s lives, make a difference, they don’t do it, but when they don’t have the power, they blame someone else.
Not sure if this is an intentional strategy, or if they are just really stupid.
I’m leaning towards the latter, if I have to be honest.
Should the climate-change conference in Paris fail to reach an agreement guess who’ll get… Oh, you’re there before me.
Very detailed. However no mention of the lack of funding by Scottish Government to FETA to ensure necessary maintenance projects could be carried out to prevent such failures.
Projects put on hold or Short-term measures done in an effort to save money and disruption until after the New Crossing is open……
“Very detailed. However no mention of the lack of funding by Scottish Government to FETA to ensure necessary maintenance projects could be carried out to prevent such failures.”
It was mentioned and linked in the previous article, which was specifically about the bridge repairs. This one is about the history of the second crossing.
I have just seen a video from the Indy Camp outside Holyrood, where some guy is slagging the SNP.
When I first heard about this camp I was supportive and intended going across when I could, but after listening to this guy smearing the SNP and basically doing the Establishment BBC, STV, MSMs job for them, I won’t be going and my support has evaporated.
The Establishment/Westminster have been placing their agents among us for centuries and are still at it. Their job to cause division.
Talking of Scottish Labour, EX MP Tom Harris on LBC news this morning. He really is losing the plot.
He is going even further to the right than McTernan and he slaughters Corbyn and his supporters at every oppotunity.
Harris is also a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. Why don’t you just come out of the closet Tom and join the Conservative Party.
You sum up what New Labour Blairites are all about
Getting the Unionist view on the Forth Road Bridge on Shareen Nanjiani’s radio show ….NOW…… The Irish Bloke who gets his only income from being the boss of The Big Issue in Scotland is leading the attack as usual…accompanied by a female (with an English accent) who has something to do with Refugees in Scotland …… Both very well briefed on all the misinformation the Establishment want Scots to hear……….Would be good to hear it again on playback,
All these SNP sheep sticking up for Sturgeon and her SNP LIARS,,, yuk!!!!
Hopefully for the last fee remaining Northern Branch voters
This will be the bridge that broke the camels back and bring them to their senses? May = Snp x 2.
PS is it the high definition on my tv or does Kezia Dugdale look like a klingon? Sorry meant to say talk like a klingon! Bugger it – both.
One_Scot
You’re not wrong- there is a theme. Labour in England is exactly the same in & out of power. And in Scotland & Wales Labour stifles any form of progress by any means possible. If they actually build anything we pay for it for the next 30yrs (PFI)whilst they get their kickbacks from contractors.
Thankfully the current Scottish government are not stupid & are actually quite good at using calculators. ‘Canny’ I think you’d call it.
SNP/SNP
So the £1500-ish extra ‘spent’ on Scots stick the MSM like to beat us with, is that based on what’s actually spent in Scotland or is it derived from the block grant figure? If it’s the latter it makes it even more ridiculous given that so much money has been returned.
@ Bob Mack
The 30% low morale is probably because the staff are constantly being told by the media and unionist parties that they’re performance is shite, even though they are out performing all other uk health services.
Bet Slab never stated the reasons for the low morale.
@ caz-m
You are right caz but it wasnt a design fault though,the design was created to take a certain load,its a bit like a low bridge you dont try and drive a double decker bus under it just because you think you can make it,but the wisdom of our onion pals decided to stress the bridge with a larger load,one the bridge was never designed to take.
Its basic physics but then i guess our onion pals will blame the SNP for physics as well,you cannot overload a suspension bridge it will break,and any engineer knows that and any who claim otherwise are not engineers but paid monkeys pretending to be engineers and should go back to school to do their physics exam.
I dont think people know the real gravity of this situation it could have been so much worse, ignoring physics is asking for trouble.
One_Scot wrote:
“I am seeing a common theme with Labour. When they have the power and opportunity to make changes, improve people’s lives, make a difference, they don’t do it,”
Awe, c’moan noo, One_Scot, that’s no fair, jist look at FanDan and BadgerBoy, their wee recent promotions urr gaunny mack ah big difference tae them and their families. It’s awe aboot priorities!
OT CAZ_M .. your pal Loki is now best pals with BBC jockland
Well done, Wings, for hauling up all the historical data that reminds us of how reluctant Labour and Tory were to build a new bridge.
I wonder if Scotland’s enemies realise that even when the public know little of the back story they still give top marks to the SNP for pushing through a third bridge.
What I’m hearing and seeing are people blanking off the pathetic whinging and the contrived anger and seeing an administration working for our benefit.
@ clydebuilt, yup I also listened to a well rehearsed rubbish slot about the FRB
DerekM wrote:
“its a bit like a low bridge you dont try and drive a double decker bus under it just because you think you can make it,”
Yeh dae if yer in yon SNP, apparently, did yeh no ken that?
@ Fran
It’s quite complicated. Back in the early 70s, when the Heath Tory government was in power, they drew up the blueprint to change the county/city local authority system in Scotland to a region/district system. The purpose was thought to be to stem the rising support for the SNP as oil had been discovered in the North Sea.
Grampian Region Council was set up in the early months of the incoming Wilson Labour governemnt in 1975. It did benefit from a higher Rate Support Grant which was supposed to compensate for greater infrastructure needs of the oil industry. GRC developed a public transport system which was an extensive regional network.
Freight train services still existed between Fraserburgh and Aberdeen so much freight still went by rail until 1979.
“The Peterhead-Maud section of the railway closed in 1970. The Dyce-Fraserburgh route closed as late as 1979. This closure was particularly controversial. The closure happened just as the oil boom was taking off and housing in towns like Ellon in particular was expanding. Ellon has 50% more inhabitants now than in 1979, and the lack of a railway leads to traffic congestion on the A90.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
Then the Major Tory government in 1996 reorganised local government in Scotland again, believing the big Regions had become too powerful. They introduced Unitary Authorities and the large scale links between transport disintegrated. They had all been privatised anyway, which is way of funneling taxpayers money into private pockets. Chaos prevailed for years and even now the services are piecemeal, fragmented and expensive with operators receiving huge grants from local authorities to keep services running.
The lack of an integrated public service network has driven everyone into cars and onto the road. Freight has also taken to the road causing traffic congestion, pollution and huge expense.
Good for road construction companies though. Property developers and land owners around the new roads also benefit hugely. It’s an ill wind… I have no idea why Willie Young takes so much interest in ruining Aberdeen city centre.
Labour handing money back to WM wasn’t a total waste of time you know
Jackie boy for a Lordship and Labour got to continue its hidden agenda of keeping Scotland in her place.
Win win as far as SLab are concerned
How very dare we complain about it
Good post, Capella.
drscottthinks
Stu,
You are out of your depth. For example, may key parts of the bridge have already been replaced without any need for closure. In any event, as I say in my blog above, engineers favoured repair (strengthening), not replacement.
I could go on…
Pretty thin vote SLab for ever stuff from a unionist zealot. That “youre out of your depth” thing is exactly how they treat their Scotland region, take what we give you, we decide, vote SLab for UKOK ever, youre all vile fools for not voting SLabour…
If Slab still owned Scotland, there’d be no new Forth Bridge, or another huge step towards unlocking our economic growth potential would be lost forever.
Instead of creating a strategic economic vision for all of Scotland decades ago when we desperately needed one, covering the richness of diversity and opportunities we have on our doorstep, red tories just want back in, to keep their Scotland region in its place, lots of tasty slots at the Westminster trough, BBC vote SLab Scotland will make it so, or else, UKOK.
link to parliament.uk
SNP x2!
DerekM 10.51am
Try telling Kezia Dugdale that the bridge just wasn’t designed to take all those heavy lorries. She will still stand up at FMQs and blame Nicola for something.
@starlaw 10.51am,
Who is my pal Loki? That’s twice this week I have heard than name Loki and I still don’t know who OR what it is. lol
Please explain.
When anyone thinks of ‘Labour’, they should think ‘Mafia’ – they won’t go far wrong.
@ Grousebeater
Thanks. It’s quite difficult to get some clarity into such a complicated mess!
I’m still seething about the Beeching cuts – so long ago.
All very well that we know who’s to blame but I have yet to hear one SNP MP or MSP explain how we have got to this point and apportion the blame to the appropriate persons.
CAZ_M Loki He is a guy who wrote a load of Unionist guff on Bella Caledonia on Dec 7. thought you had posted on this, sorry
I tend to view a lot of what the Tories do as ideologically vindictive but I think Labour’s biggest problem in recent years has been plain old fashioned incompetence.
starlaw 11.19am
Re:Loki
Yes I asked during the week who Loki was. But I never did get a name. Is Loki a person or just a term used to describe a Unionist?
We need to know, lol.
Totally lost on this one.
@ caz
Who is Kezia Dugdale is she the leader of one of the parties in our parliament
lol i wouldnt try to explain to her the laws of physics it would make her poor wee head explode.
These are excellent articles. Thank you very much Wings.
I wonder when the SNP will be blamed for the Parliament building?
Message for Kez & Co:
This izzny ‘Trumptonshire’, this is real politics. What you’re witnessing is a real grown up administration trying to do its very best to progress our wee country against a tidal wave of pure raw unionist sewerage. Stop adding to that tidal wave and cease crapping on us immediately. It takes a wee bit more than watching Camberwick Green’s Broken Bridge for inspiration. Grow up ya tubes!
Have a great weekend all you Wingers out there.
CAZ_M Loki is a person described as a writer he is young and has had issues, I think BBC will use him for their own ends. Better writers than me could best describe him, but I think he should be left to get on with his life.
Al dossary at 3.14am, reminded me of a long held suspicion viz., why do we get so little about Norway on TV? It is our nearest neighbour across the North Sea after all.
Perhaps it’s to screen from our eyes Norways very high standard of living as an oil and gas producer.
So similar, so near, yet so far.
North Korea, just across the North Sea.
The Norwegian view of us.
Capella: I’m still seething about the Beeching cuts
He certainly took little notice of Scotland’s community needs.
Labour’s biggest problem in recent years has been plain old fashioned incompetence.
Red/blue UKOK tory economics turned England into a service economy with all infrastructure centered entirely in or at the south east of England. It’s made the south east very rich, Scotland the scrounger region can enjoy the Crash Gordon pulling and sharing of resources/scrounger region status.
SLab’s incompetence is their failure to keep their Scotland region in line all of the above. Its a huge BBC failure too and ofcourse the horrific Scottish press that are all now desperately trying to make up for lost UKOK power in Scotland.
Is it all too later for the whole UKOK shebang though?
@Kenny says: 11 December, 2015 at 11:33 pm:
“I’ll never understand No voters. Why do they want to live in a country with no infrastructure? They seem to be our equivalent of Amish people. Look at Canary Wharf, Crossrail, Millennium Dome… why do they not want Aberdeen to be like Dubai or Penicuik like Singapore?”
Unfortunately, Kenny, that trend is not restricted to NO voters for many YES voters would fight to the death to preserve what they perceive to be the true Scotland where well over two thirds of the country are a barren wasteland and every square inch of the country is man made for the benefit of the, mainly foreign, rich landowners.
The, “Clearances”, did not just affect the Highlands but every square inch of Scotland and happened within the last couple of hundred years.
The Clearances were entirely due to, “The Industrial Revolution”, during the 18th to 19th centuries. It was a period where a predominantly agrarian, rural society in Scotland became industrialised and urban.
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the late 1700s. Previously manufacturing was mostly done in people’s homes, using hand tools or quite basic machines. Industrialization was the move to powered, special-purpose machinery, to factories and to mass production.
The iron and textile industries went hand in hand with the development, by a Scot, of the previously very inefficient steam engine. This led to improved systems of transportation, communication and banking.
The industrialization brought about increased volumes and greater variety of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for the rich. However it also sparked very grim employment and living conditions for the new poor working classes.
The rich landowners then cleared their lands in the once mainly agrarian areas, first to provide workers for the new industry but also to make way for the more profitable flocks of sheep.
Thus the whole of Scotland changed with first the forced movement people from the land to the central Scotland, newly industrialised, areas and when that areas need for workers became fulfilled, transported them to the English colonies.
In the central belt, southern uplands and Borders of Scotland this movement of the poor was achieved by use of the Poor Laws, often better described as, “The Vagrancy Acts”, where the, “Crime”, was described as, “Having no visible means of support”. How could a former rural person, whose home was tied to his/her job, retain any means of support if they were not, “fee’d on”, by a landowner?
In the highlands the system was different as the poorer members were settled on their crofts under the clan system. These fought back to retain what they saw as their own and thus the Highland Clearances were often quite violent annd always forced.
After the clearances the sheep finished the job of turning vast areas of Scotland into the barren wasteland we see today. Aided, of course, by the greatly increased numbers of deer due to the clearance of the highlands of the deer’s greatest predators – the Scottish people.
So quite why the perception remains that Scotland is naturally a barren wasteland of what is often described as, “Wild Country”, defies logic.
Walk up a Highland glen and you will find the remnants of human habitation and large areas of stinging nettles. Those nettles mark what was once a human midden rich in nitrogen amidst the poor soil supporting mainly heather and bracken.
They sent that money back to westminster,when asked why? the reply from Dewar etc was “We did not know what to spend it on” schools,hospitals etc come to mind,but never to a Labour mind,self serving grunts
@ col
Pointing the finger and screaming its your fault is an irrelevance and should be left to the onions as that is what they like to do and its working out just fine for them not.
Apportioning blame is self defeating better to do something about it like build a new bridge
Col at 11.18
Perhaps capital letters needed
THE BRIDGE WAS NOT DESIGNED FOR THE HUGE AMOUNT OF HEAVY TRAFFIC IT NOW ACCOMMODATES AND IS SHOWING SIGNS OF WEAR AND TEAR.
That is all. Over and out
Ruby
“I wonder when the SNP will be blamed for the Parliament building?”
Well I had heard tell of 7 plagues or something…
1 – Blood. When Salmond persisted in his refusal to: liberate the children of SLAB, Dugdale and Bailly warned him that Westminster would punish both him and his people. …
2 – Frogs. After due warning, the second plague came to Scotland. …link to tinyurl.com
3 – Bugs. …link to tinyurl.com
4 – Wild Animals. …link to tinyurl.com
5 – Pestilence. …link to tinyurl.com
6 – Boils. …link to tinyurl.com
7 – Hail. …link to tinyurl.com
8 – Locust.link to tinyurl.com
And so it was written that the people of Salmond got their just desserts for not heeding the word of the Messiah, amen.
O.T.
Regarding a certain lying Carmichael.
Hypocrisy as only a unionist politician knows how.
link to shetlandtimes.co.uk
Ok starlaw,
I will watch out for our friend “Loki”.
The extended closure of this half century old bridge in order to repair or indeed strengthen the deck was always unavoidable especially so long as the weight & quantity of vehicles using it were permitted to be increased.
In essence, the current closure is only different in that it was unplanned & regrettably occurred before the completion of the new bridge.
There are for sure, some residents in North/South Queensferry who are delighted to be enjoying a level of traffic free peace & quite, not experienced since the 1960s.
But I can only assume BBC Scotland doesn’t have the willpower & resources to find & interview them.
Thanks for the sweeties Stu, good to see the fundraiser being used exactly as you said it would
The right to freedom of speech is a fundamental one but it does bring a responsibility with it to tell the truth. The right to smear an opponent is not one we should be defending.
Alistair Carmichael MP
link to telegraph.co.uk
link to telegraph.co.uk
Speaking outside the court Mr Coulson said he did not lie in the trial five years ago, and described the prosecution as a waste of public money.
He said: “I am obviously delighted by the judge’s decison today, it was the right decision. I would like to thank him, I would like ot thank the jury for their patience and I would like to thank my brilliant legal team.
UKOK Carmichael or UKOK Coulson and any other UKOK bundle of delights heading for UKOK trial.
The cracks that have appeared on the bridge’s structure could have happened due to a fault in the steel plate that was used in that section.
When the plate was rolled at Ravenscriag or where ever, there was probably an impurity trapped in the steel. That is the start of this blame process. Then the steelwork will have a 4″ hole drilled in it to take the hinge pins.
If the hole is drilled where that impurity is then you have a recipe for disaster. A hairline crack could lie dormant for the whole of the bridge’s lifetime OR if the crack is put under extreme pressure, then you will get a stress fracture in the steelwork around the hole.
This is probably what has happened here.
Loki is a young guy, a rapper, who’s had a messed up life. Which we are inclined to give some sympathy and forgiveness for. Up to a point. Notwithstanding, he’s also a self-centred, attention seeking, pathetic little s***-stirrer who fancies himself as some kind of alternative style intellectual. He came out for indy but in the interval, with nothing much happenning politically to excite his miserable little existence, he has started attacking the SNP in much the way that a rat turns against its own when stuck in a trap. Patience, honour, and empathy are sadly not qualities which the weakest are endowed with.
Oh dear, oh dear, Wings attempt and that of the SNP to deflect blame away from the Forth Bridge Fiasco have just taken another hammering….
link to tartanjack.com
“The engineer in charge of the Forth Road Bridge wanted to fully replace the truss end links, Tartan Jack can exclusively reveal.
This contradicts public statements made by Nicola Sturgeon and Derek Mackay, who have both maintained that only a small part of the truss end links needed to be replaced.
We can also reveal that FETA (Forth Estuary Transport Authority) asked Transport Scotland for additional money in 2012, based on documents shared with Tartan Jack.
The request was rejected by the government, forcing FETA to defer “higher risk” projects”
Funny how the Engineers reports keep undermining the SNP narrative, perhaps it’s an MI5 conspiracy?
Better not tell Christine McKelvie that, there’s not enough tinfoil in Scotland to make her a hat!
Or could it just be that the Engineers know what really went on…
Still never mind I’m sure the Rev will be along soon to put this story on a higher spin cycle, so that it can be washed whiter than white, by the Nationalist spin machine.
heedtracker @ 11.58 am.
Absolutely. I mentioned these two matters the other day, and I’m sure if I tried, I could find others. U.K justice, Westminster style.
Alistair Carmichael and the FRB fiasco have guaranteed without any doubt Independence for Scotland.
Trash: Oh dear, oh dear,
I am afraid all your black propaganda isn’t working. Dumping bullcrap into Wings doesn’t make one iota of difference to the truth.
The people you have to convince are out there.
And they are not listening.
The public can see a second road bridge under construction and know Labour cancelled its build years ago.
I’ve just asked some folk who never read Wings and they are well informed about Labour returning £1.5 billion to the UK treasury so that the idiots get knighthoods for helping to impoverish Scotland’s economy.
Stop playing the mentalist and go and visit your family. It’s the weekend. Who knows what might befall them leaving you wishing you’d paid attention to your closest rather than gazing into the mirror.
Just a wee note to say thanks Stu I received my wee “prezzie” this morning. Wearing it with pride!
So does the underspend “roll over”? I was aware that there was an underspend but didn’t realise this could be ‘banked’.
The truth is what it is. FETA could have repaired the bridge at any time.They had the money. They did not repair the bridge.
Now everybody who had any responsibility is trying to scapegoat people who had nothing to do with the day to day running of the thing.
Stuart says:
12 December, 2015 at 12:22 pm
Oh dear, oh dear, Wings attempt and that of the SNP to deflect blame away from the Forth Bridge Fiasco have just taken another hammering….
But you and what’s left of SLab in Scotland must be so relieved Alex Salmond took the decision to build a new Forth Bridge? lol
Maybe we should name the new bridge the Lord Alistair Darling Bridge Stuart?
Or the Sir Daniel Alexander Bridge Stuart? even more lols
or even after naming the new Bridge Lord Darling’s bridge, a n other pack of unionists can then suddenly rename the Lord Darling bridge, the Queen Elizabeth 11 Bridge Stuart.
Bet thats no.1 right now, among UKOK royals grovelers.
@caz-m says: 12 December, 2015 at 9:41 am:
” … The cracks were caused by a design fault.”
Oh! Come on!
No one yet knows just what caused the fault. I very much doubt it was a design fault, other than the bridge was designed to carry far less traffic that it carried when this new fault occurred and the fact is the bridge has undergone strengthening several times since its first completion.
This fault was totally unforeseen. The truth is that steel is a granular material and throughout its manufacture, and subsequent fabrication into whatever structure it finishes up as, it undergoes structural changes.
Rolling, welding, hammering, stress, oxidisation and loadbearing can all, singly or cumulatively, introduce structural flaws. I once bought a washing machine that, on first use, saw the loading door hinge fracture and the door fall off. The cause was a plainly visible flaw in the hinge casting. A 1/8″ gap in the metal was plain to see.
Such flaws are hard to detect as they are deep inside the metal.
All engineering reports I’ve seen state the fracture was new and unpredictable. Let us not lower ourselves to the Britnat style of unsupported claims and blames.
I wonder what works would have been done if Westminster hadn’t cut block grants? Since 20/20 hind site is allowed now, what repair carried out would have been more serious if it weren’t
Sunniva
Re:Loki
I had NEVER heard of this guy up until a couple of days ago.
Done a wee bit of research on him there. And you are right, he’s an arse. A so called “rapper”, (snigger).
The only thing that needs rapped on Loki is his bawz.
Robert Peffers
When I said a design fault, that is what I meant as well, the bridge was not designed to take such a heavy load.
So we are in agreement, smiley thing.
If they wanted a bridge to take a heavier load, they would have designed a stronger kind of bridge.
Simple!
Scotland’s sheep boom collapsed following the invention of refrigerated shipping by Bell & Co on the Clyde in the late 1800’s. This opened the door to shipments of cheaper frozen meat from Oz & NZ and the resultant widespread replacement of shepherds by keepers as estates brought in deer to fill empty glens and satisfy the growing demand for stalking, hence the resultant rash of baronial edifices constructed in every glen. Ironically the imported sheepmeat was produced by folk whose forefathers were cleared from the Highlands to make way for sheep in the first place.
The sporting estates are still with us lifted out of taxation by John Major and in the case of one of our greatest landowners, a Dane, he pays his land taxes for his Scottish holdings to Copenhagen. Time we had our own land taxes!
After watching STV’s spin on this last night, then travelling to Dundee city centre, with Courier headlines about the NHS Tayside staff who could (?) quit, during a week where the Scottish NHS has been shown to be the only UK Health Service to improve, and is out performing all others, I get more than a little miffed.
Add Carmichael, Darling and Alexander to that cocktail and even my mild and even tempered approach to the unionists, in all their forms, has me swearing! Repeatedly!
I find this YouTube item helps put a smile back on my face. The series that put the cuss into Spartacus.
Be aware, adult content, not for the fearties.
Spartacus-Entire Series-Short Version (Cock)-YouTube
Caz-M: “they would have designed a stronger kind of bridge.”
Hi Caz
The engineers did design a bridge with an increased load in mind, but had no warning big rig weights would move from 30 tons to 50 tons – a direct action of the haulage lobby in league with Westminster MPs. The design was meant to take an ultimate 35 ton truck, and never the numbers now using it. That’s why San Francisco has more than one road bridge – same issue.
Can you recall all those past propaganda exercises that said 40 tons spreads a trucks weight and is kinder to road surfaces?
As the haulage and container companies upped their profit margins it became 45 tons … and on and on it goes.
The Scottish Gov (Richard Lockhead) has just negotiated a good deal with the US for (best) mutton – haggis. It will earn £Billions for Scottish farmers. Increase the market returns. Scotland receives the lowest CAP payments in EU as part of the UK. The EU gave Scotland an extra. Westminster took it and distributed to wealthy farmers in the rest of the UK. The UK Tory agricultural Minister said ‘Better together’.
Grouse Beater
I think we are ALL agreed, the poor bridge was pushed to breaking point.
And if there was a fault in the steelwork, then this extra loading pushed it over the edge. (scuse the pun)
‘Challenged on the proposed GBP 4 increase in bridge tolls he said no formal decision had been made, but indicated he did not believe such a steep rise from the current GBP 1 charge could be justified. He said: “I believe the economic argument against a GBP 4 toll is strong, but we will not make a decision in advance of the due process we have to follow through.”
He said a final decision on any toll increase would have to wait until the bigger decision on the future of the crossings had been taken. He said: “These are big decisions, they require proper analysis and it is the responsibility of the devolved Scottish government to do that.”
IT WISNAE ME ; McConnell refuses to take blame for election drubbing
The First Minister was put in the firing line by Scots Secretary Alistair Darling who claimed a row over Forth road bridge tolls scuppered Labour’s chances in Dunfermline and West Fife.
JACK McCONNELL yesterday dodged the flak flying over Labour’s by- election defeat, saying: “It’s not my fault.”
The First Minister was put in the firing line by Scots Secretary Alistair Darling who claimed a row over Forth road bridge tolls scuppered Labour’s chances in Dunfermline and West Fife.
But McConnell hit back, saying there was nothing more he could have done to clear up Labour’s shambles over the tolls.’
I’ve been reading through some old articles about the Forth Bridge and I came across the above.
Is it true that Labour under Jack McConnell went into an election without specifying whether the toll on the bridge would or wouldn’t be £4?
Was the intention to charge £4 a means of covering the cost of the new bridge?
If they were talking about a new bridge in 2007 what caused the delay?
Is anyone else sick and tired of many of the MSPs who are sitting in the Scottish Parliament? By that I mean paying the wages of people who are not contributing constructively in any way at all to the effective running of and well-being of our Country.
We all know that the Forth Road Bridge crisis would have been averted if Labour had gone ahead with building a new bridge over a decade ago. They didn’t and now have the audacity to blame the SNP for the current situation. No mention of the fact either that when they were in power, unlike the SNP, they weren’t being hit by Tory austerity cuts but rather were actually returning millions to the Treasury. Couldn’t find ANYTHING to spend the money on in Scotland such as NHS equipment or additional teachers! You couldn’t make it up.
I’m contributing to paying the wages of people like Kezia Dugdale, Jackie Baillie and Willie Rennie to name but a few individuals supposedly involved in making Scotland a better place for us all to live in. However what we do seem to have is a large number of destructive minded people who are being paid a decent wage for doing absolutely nought. Worse still constantly rummaging around looking for things to gripe about and pin on the SNP.
I don’t expect them not to scrutinise decisions made by the SNP and hold them to account if necessary but in this instance, and a number of others, should be pulling together and supporting the SNP and the Scots during this difficult time.
Kezia Dugdale doesn’t seem to realise that every time she stands up at FMQs showing her false face and spewing the inevitable SNP Baad mantra, with her whining voice, she’s putting another nail in the SLab coffin. Never EVER offering to help or proffer constructive suggestions. Just behaving like some jealous, vindictive primary school kid who’s intent on wreaking revenge. Total embarrassment!
If I had behaved or performed like her, and her ilk, at anytime in the workplace I would have been sacked on the spot. It’s high time they bucked themselves up or if not just get out and hand the reins over to someone more intelligent, decent minded and competent (if such a SLab / Unionist person actually exists).
Message to Kezia et al from one extremely irate tax-payer, former Labour supporter, who’s sick to the back teeth paying their wages.
sunniva. ,your way with words to describe Loki are far and away better than mine. But I suspect the BBC will try and use him to get at younger Indy supporters, I’m sure it would backfire badly on both BBC and Loki, and as I posted earlier ‘he has issues’ but don’t think that would bother BBC to much.
Mmmm….good start to the day, a badge AND sweets arrived .Yum!
Bit confused by BBC and the UKOK brigade. The bridge has been closed due a part breaking and is being repaired, it hasn’t actually fallen into the sea or have a missed something.
I also assume that all the “beep” that said all was well with the bridge and there was no need to build the new one have apologised. Seem to remember engineers coming up with lots of reasons why the FRB was fine and existing infrastructure capable if repairs needed.
Inquiry!!!! who needs an inquiry, all you need is written above…of course to start with you need to get Labour to read which coukd be a problem.
@Stuart 12.22
Maybe you can get your good pal, former Fifer and Roofer and Plumber Emeritus Dr Scott to offer us a few pearls of wisdom on what he would do in this situation, or has he already? as I suspect him you and Tartan Jack and a few other zoomers that come on here may all be the same person!
Unbelievable incompetence by the then Executive shower.We must ensure they are not allowed to mishandle the country’s finances ever again,though that chance will surely never be given them.
Ironic if the lorries carrying the sub-standard Chinese steel for the Nats new bridge, knackered the old one…
“Better to remain silent and be thought of as a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”
Dr. Johnson.
If only we had kept our own steel industry, what chance when we suffered from pricks like Labour’s Hoon telling us Britain should get out of the metal-bashing business!
Problem is people too easily forget (especially unionists) what politicians said and do.
Terrific article Rev Stu, the problem as George Trist points out is that people forget or indeed, never get to hear about these very important fact, not to mention not always fully understanding their consequences.
What the YES Movement needs is specialist groups who can study texts like this and distil them down to the basics to avoid information overload.
Simple explanations where required would also be helpful. I’m also thinking about the very good comparison article Stu has begun, demonstrating how smaller countries with less resources than Scotland are doing very well and how every country that broke away from London Control was subjected to the same propaganda tosh that Scotland has suffered before, during and after the 2014 Referendum Campaign AND YET has prospered since gaining their Independence.
“A nation rolls its eyes, wearily.”
Alas, it doesn’t. Not only do people believe the lies, they *love* the lies. They absolutely adore being shite, they are proud of it. I argue with them on the streets of my own town and they tell me I’m a fool to disagree. So I’m starting to agree. Perhaps they are shite.
#DunningKruger
Dare I mention the Scottish Parliament or the Edinburgh Trams?