As a party with no friends in a proportionally representative Parliament, the Scottish Conservatives have never been particularly proximate to the levers of power during the 25 years of devolution. However, as the only party in the Parliament which could claim to be from the traditional centre-right, it has often generated good ideas, especially when it comes to growing Scotland’s lame economy. This was particularly true in the era before 2011, when the constitutional debate encompassed everyone and everything.

I worked for the party in the early stages of devolution, and so it was with a wry smile that I read on the pages of The Herald on the first day of the year that in 2009 the Scottish Government had considered whether there should be an ultra-fast Maglev train running on stilts along the M8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Two years before that, in 2007, the very same idea had appeared in the Scottish Tory manifesto which I wrote, generated by the then Deputy Leader and economy lead for the party, Murdo Fraser.

The idea at the time was to in effect create a twin-city which would be in a better position to compete globally, attract investment and supercharge economic growth in the central belt, for the benefit of the country as a whole. It is not at all unlike the thesis promoted recently by Donald Anderson, former leader of Edinburgh Council, and his former Glasgow opposite number Steven Purcell.

Read more by Andy Maciver

Had it begun then, when the Scottish Government had discussed it, it would likely have been completed by now. Imagine the difference it might have........

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