Monday January 26th 2026
Christine Graham MSP
Christine Grahame MSP writes her monthly column for Midlothian View
I know that many of you like me have to use the city bypass. It is not so long ago that tailbacks happened just at peak times but nowadays with the pinch points, slip roads and roundabouts, it’s all the time.
Then there is the slaloming round various potholes. I have fallen victim two years in a row, both however on Edinburgh roads. It was the suspension first time and this year the springs. Just to let you know a politician is not immune.
The trouble is roads get resurfaced and before you can say Bob’s your uncle some utility is digging it up. Why? Surely co-ordination, notice of planned works, should be made to councils well in advance and save us the money and the grief. You also have to build into journey times delays because of these unexpected roadworks. Some here today and gone tomorrow so there’s always a surprise heralded by the inevitable tailback.
Anyway, with all the driving I do in the constituency I thought I’d share that with you. Road maintenance is complicated by the fact that some roads are trunk roads and under the remit of Transport Scotland and others the local council.
Apart from improving the road network, which can be self-defeating with more and more cars, alternatives such as trains and trams are not easy to deliver. It’s partly cost but also the feasibility and the time to deliver. From petition to the Scottish Parliament to the first train on the Borders railway it was just short of 10 years and that was good timing.
With Penicuik growing in population I hope in the next session of Parliament consideration will be given not just to getting the Sheriffhall roundabout off the drawing board and up and running, but for example improvements to the Straiton junction and the possibility of a tram extension from Edinburgh. Look at the positive difference of the Borders railway with its stops at Gorebridge and Newtongrange.
Finally, I could not let this pass without a word about the exclusion of Andy Burnham by a subcommittee of the Labour National Executive from being selected to stand in the imminent English by-election. Note “subcommittee” comprised of mostly Starmer allies. Incidentally he voted to exclude while the depute leader of Labour alone voted that Burnham should be allowed to stand. When you consider the undoubted attributes of Andy Burnham and his achievements as Mayor of Manchester, how personable he is, when you look at the nasal, wooden Sir Keir Starmer you can see why he wanted this application blocked.
From the start Starmer has shown he is no leader, let alone a politician. First attack the Winter Fuel Payment for Pensioners, getting rid of the Two Child Benefit Cap, raising inheritance tax on farmers, ID cards-have all u-turned. Have I missed something? Oh yes, increasing Employer’s National Insurance contributions, a tax on jobs if ever there was, and cozying up to Trump with next to nothing to show in return then the embarrassing picture of incompetence is complete. All that in one year. He lacks judgement, he lacks personality, all of which Burnham has in bucket-loads.
What is the adage” Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. Perhaps Starmer’s final error.
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