Potholes plea will be hard to dodge

THE AA has timed its intervention to perfection by challenging Chancellor Alistair Darling to divert some of the money raised from Labour’s latest attack on the motorist to repair the thousands of potholes left behind by one of Scotland’s worst winters for 100 years. The entire Cabinet is currently embarking on its best attempt at a charm offensive, scattering promises like confetti as ministers tour the world in search of votes in the forthcoming general election. With the Government about to announce that it can, after all, replace the woefully inadequate snatch Land Rovers which have been blamed for many deaths in Afghanistan, perhaps there is hope that it might also realise the vote-winning attraction of spending money on this country’s broken roads.

Motorists have been used as cash cows by governments for more years than anyone can remember, and we are now at the stage where the highest-taxed drivers in Europe are having to negotiate the worst roads in Europe. The current government has hidden behind its so-called green credentials to penalise car drivers far more than any of its predecessors, but must surely realise that enough is enough. Disgracefully, for a government dominated by Scots, it continues to perpetuate the myth that car ownership is a luxury and therefore fair game for whatever level of taxation it feels motivated to levy. The fact is that, in vast areas of the north and north-east of Scotland, a car is a lifeline and an essential cog in the economy. We do not enjoy an integrated, subsidised public transport network and a car is, for many families, the only means of putting food on the table.

With the election only a matter of a few weeks away, and Labour still languishing behind the Tories, Mr Darling could do a lot worse than respond positively to the AA’s suggestion.