What use is a tram line to Haymarket?

Of all the problems and delays which have beset the Edinburgh trams, none was so avoidable as the unbelievably stupid decision taken by Edinburgh Councillors last night to stop the new line at Haymarket.

The Chief Executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce quite understandably described the decision as "bonkers".

The brain cell belonging to the opposition councillors must have been in for dry cleaning or something. What use is a tram line that doesn't go to the City Centre? Who's going to want to use it if they have to change to a bus at Haymarket? And why would they if they can get a bus all the way into town?

The Tories are bad enough, but Labour really need to take a long, hard look at themselves. The trams were their idea in the first place. They mucked up the initial stages of it - and now they have ensured that the project is doomed to expensive failure. And Wendy Alexander went from backing it as transport minister to snookering it in opposition by making sure the Council administration, and not the Scottish Government, picked up any costs over budget.

And as for the SNP, words fail me. They are charged, as administration councillors, with governing the city responsibly. Sitting on their hands, allowing a patently stupid decision to be taken, was, quite frankly, pathetic. They have been a complete and utter pain in the backside as coalition partners. Will someone please point me to an idea which was actually theirs? All the decent stuff that the administration has done has come from the Liberal Democrats.

Jenny Dawe and her group have shown courageous and strong leadership on the trams issue. They have been the only ones who have done so.

Yes, I know, this is more of a rant than anything else, but I am so annoyed that common sense seems to have departed from the civic heart of our capital.