Fife life.

Mr Smith is sure that the members of the Fourth Estate will be paying much more attention to the machinations of the Labour Party in Fife, following the promotion of Gordon Brown to the job of British Prime Minister.

Mr Smith would like to kick the process off by highlighting the reported comments of Councillor Alex Rowley, ex-General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party and Mr Brown's 'right hand man' in Fife, in which he calls for action to tackle groups of smokers standing outside pubs following the introduction of the smoking ban in Scotland.

Now Mr Smith understands the point which Mr Rowley is trying to make, but is at a bit of a loss as to how the publicans of Fife are expected to control the actions of anyone once they step beyond the threshold of the public bar and into the street. Of more more concern to Mr Smith is why Mr Rowley, the £21,247 a year "Opposition Leader" in Fife, has apparently got so much time on his hands to be raising issues like this rather than talking about other issues in Fife which are of more concern to the average punter. But then again, perhaps that explains why after years of unchallenged control of the 'Kingdom of Fife,' the Labour Party now finds itself so firmly in opposition.

A toll story ...

So, according to this morning’s Daily Record, not only will the great Scottish public have to pick up the £5 million bill for the construction of the new “toll plaza” featuring air-conditioned toll booths, new traffic islands and a great muckle roof approaching the southern end of the Forth Road Bridge, it appears we will also need to spend an extra £2 million demolishing most of it, because the Scottish Executive appears minded to abolish tolls on the Bridge itself.

Abolishing tolls on the Forth Road Bridge is the right decision for the new Scottish Executive and Parliament to take, it’s fair and equitable given that the Bridge has been bought and paid for over the last forty years, but the waste of public money resulting from the lack of clarity on the issue over the last few years sums up the dismal state of public policy making in Scotland.

The barking dogs in Fife’s streets could tell you that Forth Bridge tolls were going to be abolished within a few years and yet the decision makers at FETA (the Forth Estuary Transport Authority) and a select band of Fife politicians in the Scottish Parliament carried on regardless with the "toll plaza," at a cost of £7 million of public money which would have been better spent on building a new primary school or health centre.

These political “representatives” should be hanging their heads in shame at their cavalier attitude with public money and their “I’m only doing my job” attitude even when they must have known what they were doing made no sense in the medium term.

So Mr Smith will be sending a bill to FETA and to the Scottish Parliament @ EH99 1SP, although they may have some difficulty trying to claim it back on expenses. But then again maybe £7 million is a small price to pay for a bit of regime change?