The difference between Labour and Tories
Just before I retired, the M77 to Ayrshire was started. I say started because the M77 still only goes
from Glasgow as far as the Fenwick cut-off. Good sliproads, decent flyovers. I notice it's having to be re-surfaced in some areas, which means it's well used. Mind you, Fenwick Moor still isn't the best place to be stuck if the weather changes and I'm not sure what the action plan is for dealing with snow even after all these years of closed roads and stranded motorists.
After Fenwick, you're back to the nightmare of poor roads that can't handle the kind of traffic that uses them on a daily basis, roundabouts where national and local traffic meet in a daily horror show of congestion - and frequent accidents. Today someone sent me a video of the proposal to improve the M77 down to Maybole. Sadly, in the video I see roundabouts. Big roundabouts. Clearly places where local and national traffic is going to meet. Still, I hope this improvement is going to happen. In fact, I hope the M77 is going to be widened all the way to Stranraer. You know Stranraer: major ferry port, link with Ireland. Could be an important place come brexit. Not to mention a vital link for the tourist industry in Dumfries & Galloway. It's not the first time I've come across confused tourists in Glasgow's southside wondering how you get to Dumfries.
And it's not just the M77 that's the problem in Ayrshire: the road from West Kilbride to Inverclyde is an absolute disgrace. Getting to the ferry at Skelmorlie or Ardrossan from Glasgow is nightmarish. Getting from Muirkirk to the motorway is no picnic either.
Why have road improvements never happened till now? Why are there so few flyovers to take local traffic off the main roads? Why are the links with the rest of Scotland so poor?
It's political. Has to be.
Ayrshire was split between Tories and Labour for about 60 years after the second world war. When the Tories were in power in Westminster, they wouldn't spend money on roads in Labour constituencies. When Labour was in power, Ayrshire lost out again. I've never seen an area as tied to traditional voting patterns as Ayrshire. The rule appeared to be: Ayr is Tory. So is Arran. The north and east of the county are Labour.
The difference between Labour and Tory in Ayrshire? None. Neither party achieved much for the voters.
Yes, there were flurries of job creation from time to time, but there were many more occasions when jobs were lost. You can still see the remnants of Ayrshire's industrial life all over the county: there's no mining, no engineering, no shoe-making, no carpet factories. The tractor factory has gone. Ardeer is gone.
Even the enterprises meant to replace some of these have been in a parlous state: the Maritime Museum in Irvine was almost lost. The tourist office in Kilmarnock was one of the first places to be closed by the council in 1996. Doon Valley Museum is also gone.
I can only hope that the days of electing 'a dug wi a red (or blue) rosette' are over. Ayrshire deserves better.
It certainly deserves to be more than a dormitory for Glasgow. In my years working in Ayrshire, I met young people from farming backgrounds whose only wish was to stay where their families were, raise their cattle and sheep, ride their ponies and go to Young Farmers' discos. That's not the ambition of a lot of young people and Ayrshire now finds itself in the terrible position of a lot of Scotland outside the Central Belt: you send your kids away to get an education - and they don't come back.
I hope the SNP or whoever governs Scotland after independence can do better.
from Glasgow as far as the Fenwick cut-off. Good sliproads, decent flyovers. I notice it's having to be re-surfaced in some areas, which means it's well used. Mind you, Fenwick Moor still isn't the best place to be stuck if the weather changes and I'm not sure what the action plan is for dealing with snow even after all these years of closed roads and stranded motorists.
After Fenwick, you're back to the nightmare of poor roads that can't handle the kind of traffic that uses them on a daily basis, roundabouts where national and local traffic meet in a daily horror show of congestion - and frequent accidents. Today someone sent me a video of the proposal to improve the M77 down to Maybole. Sadly, in the video I see roundabouts. Big roundabouts. Clearly places where local and national traffic is going to meet. Still, I hope this improvement is going to happen. In fact, I hope the M77 is going to be widened all the way to Stranraer. You know Stranraer: major ferry port, link with Ireland. Could be an important place come brexit. Not to mention a vital link for the tourist industry in Dumfries & Galloway. It's not the first time I've come across confused tourists in Glasgow's southside wondering how you get to Dumfries.
And it's not just the M77 that's the problem in Ayrshire: the road from West Kilbride to Inverclyde is an absolute disgrace. Getting to the ferry at Skelmorlie or Ardrossan from Glasgow is nightmarish. Getting from Muirkirk to the motorway is no picnic either.
Why have road improvements never happened till now? Why are there so few flyovers to take local traffic off the main roads? Why are the links with the rest of Scotland so poor?
It's political. Has to be.
Ayrshire was split between Tories and Labour for about 60 years after the second world war. When the Tories were in power in Westminster, they wouldn't spend money on roads in Labour constituencies. When Labour was in power, Ayrshire lost out again. I've never seen an area as tied to traditional voting patterns as Ayrshire. The rule appeared to be: Ayr is Tory. So is Arran. The north and east of the county are Labour.
The difference between Labour and Tory in Ayrshire? None. Neither party achieved much for the voters.
Yes, there were flurries of job creation from time to time, but there were many more occasions when jobs were lost. You can still see the remnants of Ayrshire's industrial life all over the county: there's no mining, no engineering, no shoe-making, no carpet factories. The tractor factory has gone. Ardeer is gone.
Even the enterprises meant to replace some of these have been in a parlous state: the Maritime Museum in Irvine was almost lost. The tourist office in Kilmarnock was one of the first places to be closed by the council in 1996. Doon Valley Museum is also gone.
I can only hope that the days of electing 'a dug wi a red (or blue) rosette' are over. Ayrshire deserves better.
It certainly deserves to be more than a dormitory for Glasgow. In my years working in Ayrshire, I met young people from farming backgrounds whose only wish was to stay where their families were, raise their cattle and sheep, ride their ponies and go to Young Farmers' discos. That's not the ambition of a lot of young people and Ayrshire now finds itself in the terrible position of a lot of Scotland outside the Central Belt: you send your kids away to get an education - and they don't come back.
I hope the SNP or whoever governs Scotland after independence can do better.
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