"THE NEWS" According to the No Tolls campaign

This morning's papers. Here is what we think this morning's papers should have said!

The heavyweights from London, including George Brown, David Cameron and Charles Kennedy have all joined in the battle for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election as if it was a practice run for a General election. But one of the biggest issues for the voters of Dunfermline and West Fife is the tolls on the Forth road bridge. On this issue, most of the candidates seem to be trying to pull the wool over voters eyes.

The tolls on the Forth bridge are due to end on the 31st March, unless Tavish Scott, the Scottish Transport Minister and the rest of the Scottish Executive decide to extend them. A request for them to do so was made by "FETA", the bridge authority, at it's last meeting at the end of November. That request was endorsed by 4 of the Labour local councillors and by the only Lib Dem local councillor on the board. There were 5 votes against this, but it was passed by the casting vote of the Labour chairman. The bridge board also decided that they wanted to introduce a "road user charging" scheme with the existing £1 tolls increasing by up to £4.

Since the announcement of the by-election there have been a flurry of statements from the main parties saying that they are opposed to any toll increases and many of the parties are promising that they will build a new bridge.

These statements are in effect admissions that the main political parties intend to support the extension of tolls. The promises of no toll increases are like saying to a prisoner at the end of their sentence that they will not be released, but that their prison conditions will not be made worse. They are promises that can not be trusted as at the Inquiry that was held before the last toll increase (on 1st May) the only objectors present were Tom Minogue, George Campbell "the Lone Protestor", and the National Alliance Against Tolls. None of the politicians from any of the parties lifted even a little finger to stop the increase. The NAAT is therefore supporting Tom Minogue, a lifelong Fifer and candidate for the Abolish Forth Bridge Tolls party.

The Alliance have been monitoring the statements of the various parties on the tolls question. When we asked Catherine Stihler, the Labour candidate, whether she supported the removal of tolls, her office said "this is very much part of her campaign". When we queried this, her office said that this statement was a mistake and have not revealed what she really thinks. Ms Stihler seems to be following in the footsteps of Gordon Brown. When the Prime Minister in waiting was just a humble opposition MP, he said "Charging of tolls is totally indefensible on the grounds of logic, equity and economic rationality ... they are excessive and unreasonable ... why are the benefits of the Forth Road Bridge any more exceptional than those of the Kessock or Ballachulish Bridges, neither of which had tolls?". Perhaps Gordon Brown could explain why he has since abandoned his fellow Fifers?

When the Alliance asked the Lib Dem candidate, Willie Rennie, about the tolls, he told us that he thinks that £4 tolls are "punitive". But he doesn't explain why Lib Dems voted for £4 tolls, or why he supports keeping the tolls. Now that Charles Kennedy is in Fife, it highlights the contrast between the Lib Dem position on the Forth bridge tolls, and Mr Kennedy's position on the Skye bridge tolls. When the tolls were removed there just over 12 months ago, Charles Kennedy warmly welcomed it. We wonder how he will justify to the voters supporting the removal of tolls in his own constituency, but wanting to keep them in Fife?

The SNP candidate, Douglas Chapman, has not replied to our questions, but has said elsewhere that "£1 is enough". Fergus Ewing, the SNP Transport spokesman, has answered some of the Alliance questions and has said that the SNP refuse to support the removal of the tolls, because they don't want "more public cash to be ladled out to all and sundry". This is a strange statement, when all three of Scotland's tolls (Forth, Erskine and Tay) only collect some £21 million a year, compared with this year's Executive budget of £27 billion or the £520 billion in UK taxes that Gordon Brown collects.

The tolls on the Erskine bridge over the Clyde, are also due to the end this year (1st July) but if the voters of Dunfermline and West Fife effectively vote to keep the tolls, there must be a strong chance that the West of Scotland will not be freed from tolls.

The Scottish Tories have suggested that a new privately financed Forth bridge is built and that then tolls could be removed from the existing Forth road bridge. Have the politicians so soon forgotten the suffering of the people of Skye? Why should Fifers have the burden of another 10 years or so of tolls? And does anyone believe that a private company is going to build a private bridge that would need tolls of about £7, when there is supposedly an untolled bridge alongside?

National Alliance Against Tolls