Mischief afoot as LibDem MEP uses Brussels to query RET legality

George Lyon, the LibDem Scottish MEP, formerly the LibDem MSP for Argyll and Bute who lost the seat to Jim Mather in 2007, has, through the European Commission, questioned the legality of the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) scheme which is presently being trialled on ferry routes serving the Western Isles.

This action has unsurprisingly brought a set of angry political hornets around his head.

Jim Mather, the respected MSP for Argyll & Bute has joined with his SNP colleagues, Alastair Allan, MSP for the Western Isles and Dave Thomson, Highlands and Islands MSP, in finding this action to be disturbing and mischievous.

Jim Mather says: ‘It is really difficult to understand the motivation behind this latest action from George Lyon. The LibDems were always loftily indifferent to the possibilities of RET when it was advocated over many years by the Scottish National Party as action that would benefit island communities on the West Coast.

‘And yet, as soon as RET was trialled for the Western Isles, Alan Reid, MP, was the first to complain that it was not being universally applied from its inception.

‘It makes sound economic sense to test such a radical approach to fare-setting and the choice of the Western Isles routes  was based on the fact that there, before all others, was the classic case of depopulation and economic decline that would most benefit from such a financial shot in the arm.

‘It genuinely surprised us that the most illiberal reaction to this decision came – and continues to come,  from supposedly Liberal politicians.

‘When the present trial with the Western Isles routes was extended, Tavish Scott, MSP (from Shetland and Leader of the Scottish LibDem group), complained loud and long about “discrimination“ against Northern Isles routes although that soon became muted when it was gently pointed out that those routes presently  receive subsidy levels far in excess of RET route discounts.

‘Now, on an altogether opposite tack, George Lyon seeks to completely deprive the very people he is supposed to represent from the future benefits of RET. This is a novel way of looking after the interests of constituents.

‘Could it be that the present coalition between Tories and LibDems has driven this MEP off message? Is he mixing with the wrong set in Liverpool? In his last political manifestation Mr Lyon was a minister in coalition with the Scottish Labour Party and he now appears to have seamlessly made the transition  to a Tory backwoodsman with his enthusiasm for the faster and deeper cuts of his new  political allies.

‘Islanders, even those still waiting for the benefits of RET, are unlikely to thank him if he succeeds in snatching this benefit from them with his ill- considered actions’.

There are two issues here:

• the last possibility mentioned above by Jim Mather – that Brussels intervention might lose the scheme for Scotland altogether. This very possibility shows poor political judgment on the part of Mr Lyon. For the short term political gain for his party in appearing to champion the Argyll islands angered by their exclusion from the scheme, he may well leave them equal to the others – in shared deprivation of the future of the scheme.
• the recent illogical extension of the pilot scheme for a further year – embedding the economic damage caused to the excluded Argyll islands in the formation of visitor habits over what will now be a four year period of understandably choosing the cheapest routes in deciding where to holiday. We have recently published factual evidence from Colonsay on how damaging this new visitor pattern has been to the island’s fragile economy.

The issue here is that a trial is a trial is a trial. Thirty months – the period initially set for the pilot RET scheme, is more than enough to record and measure the impact of the scheme and to establish its longer term viability.

By all accounts, it has been successful in increasing visitor numbers and in supporting business competitiveness in the included islands, with freight and transport charges reduced.

Conversely, the pilot has been damaging to businesses in the excluded islands whose significantly higher overheads make them uncompetitive with rivals in the included islands.

There were only two defensible choices for the Scottish Government.

• To let the pilot scheme complete its original course and then decide on whether or not to implement it fully, with the inclusion of the other west coast islands.
• To declare it already a success and implement it across the board without delay.

Who could have imagined the sudden introduction of an entirely unnecessary third option – to give the pilot scheme another year and embed further the damaging discrimination in economic support between the west coast islands.

We have not been the greatest fan of the Transport Minister, Stewart Stevenson, whom we have seen as persistently inept but it would be naive and unfair  to suggest that this action has been dreamed up by him alone.

It has all the hallmarks of a central decision made by a party protecting certain of its political interests – at all costs – in the run up to what is going to be a humdinger of an election, with the SNP administration fighting for its political life.

This action does the Scottish Government and the party in charge of it, no favours in any way.

It calls into question its impartiality, its fiscal responsibility, its intelligence and its political judgment. It promised better than this.

Arguably, had the SNP Government simply left the pilot to complete on schedule and not added the irritation of extended exclusion for the Argyll islands, this piece of political mischief in Brussels would probably not have occurred to Mr Lyon.

Both the SNP and George Lyon MEP are guilty of opening up the possibility of long term damage to others as the price of short term self-interest.