Week of drama at the parliament

By John Knox
Political reporter, BBC Scotland

It's been a dramatic week at Holyrood - and that was all before the Queen's weekend visit to mark the third session of parliament.

The government backed down over its opposition to trams

The new SNP government suffered its first defeat. It went down 81 to 47 when the opposition parties ganged up to vote for a motion insisting that the Edinburgh tram scheme go ahead.

Finance Secretary John Swinney immediately conceded defeat and announced that he would honour the £490m commitment made by the previous administration.

"But there will not be a penny more," he said.

He also agreed to take another look at the plan to build a rail link to Edinburgh airport but warned the project had "had it".

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson earlier announced that he was pressing ahead with the M74 extension and the M8 completion. But there will be a one year delay to the Glasgow Airport link and the Aberdeen by-pass.

And two other big transport projects are to be taken on by the SNP government.

Seabirds and homo sapiens

The Glasgow to Edinburgh railway line is to be electrified, at a cost of £264m.

And there's to be a final consultation on the Forth crossing. The latest report puts the cost at between £2.5bn and £3.5 bn for a bridge just upstream of the present one.

A tunnel - still not finally ruled out - would cost between £3.6bn and £4.7bn.

Thursday saw the last first minister's question time before the summer recess and Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead also won support for his attempt to give Scottish ministers the power to freeze ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Firth of Forth.

He's using a "statutory instrument" under the European habitat directive - a legal device which may prove painful to the Forth Ports authority but will be welcomed by whales, dolphins, seabirds and many homo sapiens.

MSPs approved new powers affecting ship-to-ship transfers

The committees finally ground into action this week.

The petitions committee began in sparkling form, agreeing with two doughty ladies from Edinburgh that more needed to be done to check up on assurances given during the passage of parliamentary bills, like the aforementioned trams legislation.

Apparently the two ladies, living along the proposed line of the tram, were promised sweeteners like a bus link to the Western General Hospital and noise abatement devices on the wheels of the trams.

The committee also agreed with two gentlemen from the bingo trade that they were unfairly having to pay VAT on their takings. There is no similar charge on horse racing or casinos.

Other committees, like health, enterprise, external affairs and justice, called the relevant ministers in front of them to outline the new government's policies.

Bill Butler, Labour's man on the justice committee, accused the government of "hitting the ground strolling", as Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill told him the SNP's legislative programme would be announced in the autumn.

More 'swagger'

He also pointed out that government wasn't just about passing laws and a lot could be done under the present ones.

Just for the record though, the SNP government has made a number of significant and eye-catching announcements in their first 50 days in office.

These include, abolishing bridge tolls, ending the graduate charge, saving Monklands and Ayr accident and emergency units, increasing payments for personal care, increasing the number of teachers and the number of hours of free nursery education and setting out plans for an 80% cut in emissions by 2050.

The parliament, as well as the trams vote, also had its moments this term.

It successfully managed a change in governmental regime, took up a firm position against Trident renewal and grasped the thistle of MSP expenses.

Alex Salmond has formed a so-far coherent administration, including nearly all the talents in his party, though I can think of at least two he's missed out.

There has been a swagger about this new government, which grows more pronounced by the week.

The SNP will hope it doesn't fly into a fence, capercaillie-style

For the mandarins in the civil service, I guess it's been like one of Mao's cultural revolutions - never ending change.

They have been working like alchemists, converting manifesto commitments into practical policy - all with the looming prospect of the comprehensive spending review.

Mr Salmond also travelled to Northern Ireland to forge a Celtic alliance and took on Tony Blair over the Lockerbie affair.

On that note, the Criminal Cases Review Commission recommended a second appeal for the man convicted of the bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

Jim Swire, tireless campaigner "for the truth" over the incident, came to the Scottish Parliament on Thursday and welcomed the outcome.

Also helping the government on an economic front is a new council of advisers.

The knights of the economic round table were named as Frances Cairncross, Crawford Beveridge, Andrew Hughes Hallett, Frances Ruane, Jim McColl, Sir George Mathewson, Alex Kemp, John Kay, Sir Robert Smith, Finn Kydland and Sir James Mirrlees.

It's hard to imagine a more distinguished panel - but if Adam Smith himself was to give the SNP advice, they may not take it, and it still may not lead to the Holy Grail of matching the UK's economic growth rate of 2.6%.

When the royal parade is over, we'll have a long, wet summer to see if early promise from the government runs into early disappointment - like capercaillie flying into forestry fences.

And all we may be left with is fine feathers.