Shoot yourself in the foot
The 2005 FirstFoot “Golden Shotgun” Award for shooting yourself well and truly in the foot goes to Conservative MSP David Davidson.
The Scottish Tory Transport spokesman, Mr Davidson has campaigned for years for the building of an Aberdeen bypass to ease the pressure of traffic through Aberdeen city centre.
he found out about
the news about his house
The Scottish Executive has now made his wish come true by giving the £300million dual carriageway scheme the green light to go ahead.
The trouble is, thanks to a last-minute change of route revealed by Transport Minister Tavish Scott, Mr Davidson’s £400,000 converted farmhouse in Netherley, near Stonehaven, is one of 35 homes that will now have to be bulldozed to make way for the new road.
Ironically, the original proposed route which went nowhere near the MSP’s home and which had previously been approved was only changed after strong objections were lodged by several parties including, yes, you guessed it, Mr Davidson himself.
To Mr Davidson’s eternal credit, he took the news philosophically, saying;
“You cannot, as a politician, fight for something and then at the end of the argument, when you win, say, wait a minute – I didn’t really mean that!”
He certainly can’t be accused of NIMBYism, that’s for sure. This one ain’t just in his back yard – it’s in through the back door, along the hallway, into the front room, out through the french windows onto the manicured lawn and along the front garden path with broken white lines up the middle and a hard shoulder where the study used to be.
But you can probably bet your bottom dollar that questions will now be asked in the Scottish Parliament by the member for West Aberdeenshire about the levels of compensation due to homeowners displaced by road schemes.
It’s just a hunch.