Beaker Breaks And Goes

So Scotland managed to lose its Transport and Climate Change Minister over the weekend. We found two replacements behind the sofa cushions.

Like a few others, I had great fun on twitter on Monday night taking the mickey out of Stewart Stevenson's performance on Newsnight Scotland. He was a bit hapless in trying to defend his department from the charges that they'd done absolutely nothing about a heavy snowfall on Monday morning.

As much as I enjoyed seeing his discomfort, I wasn't actually all that angry at him or the government. In fact, I wasn't angry at all. I was just having a bit of fun.

On Monday, I was supposed to drive to Perthshire so on Sunday night I checked the Transport Scotland website. They were warning of Heavy Snow falling on Ice, making for hazardous driving conditions. I checked the BBC Weather website. Sure enough, they were also forecasting Heavy Snow. I decided not to travel.

So given that Transport Scotland had actually forecast the heavy snow that brought the country to a halt, why did Stevenson take so much flak?

Well, it's one thing forecasting it, and it's another thing doing anything about it. The public perceived that they weren't warned that they might spend two days stuck on the motorway, so that must be someone's fault. And it's definitely not the fault of the poor, maligned motorist, because obviously they had all done what I had done and checked out Transport Scotland's website. Hadn't they?

But Stevenson's performance on Newsnight was woeful, and the opposition parties smelt blood. By Saturday he was gone, and his portfolio has been split between two others.




Keith Brown, a man I've never heard of, has taken over at Transport. He used to be a marine, so that has given the newspapers much fun about him being parachuted in to marshal the troops.















Climate Change is now the responsibility of Roseanna Cunningham. I've always found her a wee bit scary, but I've really no idea why. Some people you take to, some you don't, and I've never taken to her.






Whether they remain in those posts after the elections in May, we'll have to wait and see. Before then, Cunningham has to come up with a plan for Scotland to reduce it's emissions, something that Stevenson failed to do with any conviction.