The opening of the new rail link from the east end of Glasgow directly to Edinburgh is a huge boost for the area. The first trains with passengers started running today, Sunday 12th December, stopping at six stations in the east end of Glasgow: High Street, Bellgrove, Carntyne, Shettleston, Garrowhill, and Easterhouse.

Along with the investment of £445 million in the M74 completion, the investment of £250 million in this rail link underlines the SNP’s commitment to Glasgow in general and the East End in particular. Both road and public transport need investment and these two projects together show that the SNP is committed to driving Scotland’s economy forward.

John Mason travelled on the first train from Shettleston station at 8.15am this morning. The service left and arrived on time taking about an hour. He returned soon afterwards and again the journey went perfectly. Congratulations are certainly due to ScotRail and Network Rail as well as former Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson. Trains originating in Helensburgh and west of Glasgow used to terminate at Airdrie while those from Edinburgh and the east stopped at Bathgate. But with the Airdrie-Bathgate link opened, direct journeys from Helensburgh to Edinburgh become the norm. The 24 km (15 miles) of new line are the longest domestic rail line with stations to be built in Britain for 100 years.

John Mason said, “There has been a big emphasis on this project benefitting communities in North Lanarkshire and West Lothian as they are getting train services for the first time. And that is great. However, I reckon the east end of Glasgow is a major beneficiary of this new line. Because of the good motorway links, our part of Glasgow has become an increasingly attractive area for people to live and work. But now we also have this excellent rail connection which allows us to travel east without going to Glasgow city centre. We are now much better connected than the likes of Bearsden and Milngavie… I don’t know why people want to live there!

“With the SNP investing so heavily in road and rail to benefit our area, this has to give a real boost to long term jobs. Anyone setting up a new business or factory will find the east end one of the best areas to come to. Rich business commuters may have lost out on their airport rail link, but ordinary people in Glasgow are winning with this great new rail line.”

Clearly the big news and the big problem over the last couple of weeks has been the weather. I myself have used either the bus or the train to the city centre on most days in the last couple of weeks. And every time I have needed them, one of them has been running. Clearly it has not been an easy task for the drivers, yet they almost always seem to handle the difficulties with good humour. On more than one occasion I have heard a driver telling their boss on the phone they will work a bit longer and drive a bit further in order to get people home. Many of these folk have been outstanding examples of what public service is all about.

So could more have been done? There have been endless arguments about the Council and the Government not being better prepared. Was the weather forecast accurate enough? Was the grit good enough? But the reality is that, even if we had known how much snow there would be, how cold it would be, and how long it would go on for, there is probably little that could have been done differently. Such weather has not been common in recent years and if Glasgow City Council had spent millions more on gritters and snowploughs only to have had them sit idle for most of the last twenty years, most council tax payers would have been complaining bitterly at the waste of money.

And don’t other countries handle things better? A couple of years ago I visited Budapest in Hungary where they are used to cold winters. The pavements there were in a much worse state than Glasgow’s. And Canada? There they seem to have more equipment for dealing with snow because they need it every winter and use it every winter. Are our taxpayers willing to pay extra tax for equipment being on stand-by even if it is only used for four weeks in every twenty years?

I was discussing all of this with a Canadian who lives in Scotland. He made the point that in Canada the drivers too take on more responsibility, including having different tyres for the winter, and carrying grit, a shovel, food, and a candle (for warmth) in the car.

So, yes, let’s have a debate about how we handle weather like this. But let’s be grateful to all the people who have really gone out of their way to help others.

John Mason has seriously questioned the Tory (supported by LibDem) Government’s proposals to force benefit claimants to work for next to nothing. It seems that their plan is to remove every remaining safety net from the poorest in society. We all know how often Government offices make mistakes. They assess people as fit for work when clearly they are not. And errors are often made which leave people without the benefits they are legally entitled to.

Of course we all want to see people working who are able to. But for that to happen the Government needs to be more serious about creating suitable jobs. Instead of pouring money into the banks with hardly any strings attached, both Labour and Conservative Governments should have invested in capital projects to create more jobs.

The Tory proposal appears to be that people will have to work 30 hours for Job Seekers Allowance of just £65.45; that is £2.18 per hour! Even the minimum wage of £5.93 is hard enough to live on, so how is £2.18 possible?

Presumably the worst people in our society are criminals in prison. Yet they get food and a warm place to stay as a minimum human right. So surely everyone else in our society should have that same right? A better system would be to say everyone is entitled to £65.45 (or whatever minimum level they need to exist on) as a right which is UNCONDITIONAL. Then an additional amount (£35? more?) could be CONDITIONAL on doing training, work experience, voluntary work, etc.

John very much agrees with comments by SNP Work and Pensions spokesperson, Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP, who has said, “The Con/Dem coalition have got their priorities all wrong – they should be focusing on supporting recovery and job creation… Yes, we must look at how best we get people back into the workplace, but such reforms must be undertaken with care and common sense… The Tory/Lib Dem assumption does appear to be that everybody on benefits is somehow cheating the system or work-shy…”