Ducking and diving in the chamber

By John Knox
BBC Scotland political reporter

The day the roof caved in. That will be how the Holyrood community will remember the second day of March 2006.

It's as if the new building couldn't bear to be ignored.

It wanted to draw attention to its jinxed self when all the world was looking elsewhere.

So it dropped an oak beam from the chamber roof.

The beam hung precariously over the chamber

It swung dangerously over Tory MSP's heads, still attached to its steel bracket at the other end.

Business had to be abandoned.

A debate on the water industry was interrupted, question time was lost, as was a debate in the afternoon on .... wait for it, architecture!

Was it jealousy? The Welsh Assembly's new £67m stylish, environment-friendly debating chamber was opened by the Queen in Cardiff Bay on Wednesday.

The Liberal Democrats were celebrating the election of Sir Menzies Campbell as their new leader on Thursday.

The Conservatives were on their way to a David Cameron spectacular in Perth on Friday.

Surely the Scottish Parliament had to do something to attract attention.

The upshot is that the parliament will probably have to move out of its debating chamber next week to Edinburgh City Chambers up the Royal Mile.

We've got to get the roof fixed and get the parliament back in business as quickly as possible George Reid Presiding officer

Safety inspectors are still carrying out thorough checks on the remaining 59 beams.

And everyone is praying there isn't a fault with the whole roof design.

"It's deeply frustrating," said the presiding officer George Reid.

"The parliament has had a good year, with eight architectural prizes and around 700,000 visitors.

"We've got to get the roof fixed and get the parliament back in business as quickly as possible. Then we will look at the issue of liability."

Workmen with red faces have been crawling over the site to find out what went wrong.

Was it Bovis' fault, the construction managers', or Ove Arup, the engineers or Laing O'Rourke, the main contractor?

Or was it all down to the architect, the late Enric Miralles?

Conspiracy theorists may well put it down to the Lord Advocate Colin Boyd.

'Much anxiety'

The hanging beam meant no vote could be taken on whether there should be a public inquiry into the case which has been haunting him for weeks, the McKie fingerprint affair.

Regular readers will know the story of the detective Shirley McKie who was falsely accused of leaving her fingerprint at the scene of a murder.

The SNP, the Conservatives, the Greens and the Socialists joined forces to call for a full public inquiry by a high court judge.

Mr Boyd and the justice minister Cathy Jamieson were spared the embarrassment of a close vote.

One Scottish Executive MSP, Liberal Democrat Mike Rumbles, struggled out of the snows of Aberdeenshire only to be told his presence was not required in the chamber after all.

The transport minister said tolls would remain on the Forth Bridge

Our other engineering story of the week involves the Forth Bridge.

Its corroding cables have caused much anxiety.

On Wednesday, Transport Minister Tavish Scott announced that plans would be made for a replacement bridge, if that should prove necessary.

Experts will know within the next 18 months if efforts to dry out the cables and halt the corrosion have been successful.

Meanwhile, studies are to be made into the costs of different types of new bridge, or even a tunnel.

Now that the smoke has cleared after the Dunfermline by-election, Mr Scott also felt it safe enough to announce that tolls on the Erskine Bridge over the Clyde in Glasgow are to be abolished but tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges are to remain.

"Each bridge has its own unique circumstances," he said. "It's a principled and consistent approach to Scotland's bridges."

MSPs from the west agreed. MSPs from the east disagreed. Labour members from Fife were furious.

Toll explanation

Christine May said: "The only place where tolls are to be retained is the Kingdom of Fife."

Mr Scott tried to explain that scrapping tolls on the Erskine Bridge would ease congestion on the nearby Kingston Bridge.

Scrapping the £1 toll on the Forth Bridge would cause even more congestion on the only bridge available.

And, as to the Tay Bridge, that has not yet been paid for.

Money was allocated to help regenerate Inverclyde

The bridge announcement was followed by a debate on the new urban regeneration policy of the executive, announced on the banks of the Clyde on Tuesday.

Urban regeneration companies are to be set up in Inverclyde and Ayrshire and Glasgow is to get additional support for its Gateway and Waterfront projects.

It's hoped new houses, businesses, colleges and leisure facilities will be built on old industrial sites in partnership with the private sector.

The SNP and the Conservatives were sceptical.

Socialist Frances Curran found herself agreeing with Prince Charles that local people were not given much of a say in plans drawn up by "people behind desks taking decisions they know nothing about."

In the committee rooms, the environment committee heard evidence from the timber industry on the possibility of biomass fuel being used to heat schools, swimming pools and hospitals in woodland areas of Scotland.

They said public investment in wood burning stoves was needed to stimulate the biomass industry and it would cut heating costs by half.

The petitions committee scored another success this week.

The Curran family from Coatbridge won their case for a fatal accident inquiry into the death of their daughter Gillian.

An FAI will now be held into Gillian Curran's death

She was killed more than two years ago when the car she was travelling in was hit by the car behind.

The lord advocate had previously ruled out a public inquiry and the family took their case to the petitions committee.

This week, while the justice committee was looking into the case, we learned that the lord advocate had changed his mind.

However the committee failed to support the Curran family's plea that all such deaths should be the subject of a public inquiry.

Trams approved

And the Edinburgh tram line committee this week approved the bill to allow the construction of the so-called Line One, from Leith to Haymarket.

Another committee has already approved Line Two, from the city centre to the airport.

The Line One committee expressed its disappointment that Edinburgh City Council has decided that the tram project, costing £634m, will have to be built in phases.

Just like devolution, building trams and bridges are a continuous process not a sudden event.

But they can be interrupted by a sudden event.

MSPs this weekend are hoping the roof is not caving in on the whole devolution project.