A TUNNEL from Scotland to Northern Ireland is the latest brainchild from the mastermind bunker of the UK Government.

Last month Boris Johnson said that building a bridge between the countries was being looked at.

Now his man in Scotland, Alister Jack, says a bridge doesn’t really mean a bridge but instead is a euphemism for a tunnel. Don’t even try to work that out.

READ MORE Scots Secretary wants tunnel to Ireland

Maybe it would be a good thing for those who do cross the North Channel between the countries regularly and for those who do business between the two.

Let’s play along with Alister and say it is feasible and maybe the money is there but is it how we should be spending £20bn on better transport?

It’s like getting Leonardo in to paint your ceiling when your floor is rotting under your feet.

There is an obsession with grand projects, when so many smaller projects are needed which would improve transport links for many more people.

I would imagine people in Belfast and across Northern Ireland could also think of other ways to use their half of the £20bn.

In Scotland, and in Glasgow, we could certainly do so much more.

For example, we could finally get a viable alternative to getting Glasgow Airport from the city other than the M8.

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We could use some of it to do the Crossrail link to connect the rail networks north and south of Glasgow city centre.

If it must be spent on a big-ticket project, then High Speed Rail could come further than the north of England and onwards to Glasgow to give the city the same benefits of reduced journeys to London that a select few English cities will get.

On a more local level to improve the everyday transport experience it could be used to extend the subway.

If a tunnel can be built from Scotland to Northern Ireland then a tunnel can be built from the city centre to Dennistoun and Parkhead.

Re-opening old railway lines across Glasgow and further afield could connect our towns and cities once more to reduce the reliance on road travel.

Improving the ferry services, with new vessels and improvements to harbours to allow boats to berth more often would be welcomed by island communities.

We could see the situation where you can drive or take the train from Glasgow to Belfast or Dublin but Arran is cut off because the ferry has broken down.

We could subsidise electric cars that would make them affordable to the majority of the population and invest in more charging points.

Sales of new petrol and diesel cars are to be phased out by 2035 but the price of an electric car is out of the reach of most working people.

Or we could maybe use it to come up with a solution that gets buses moving through the city at more than walking pace.

We could extend free public transport or at least make it cheaper so that people are not scraping together the bus fare to get to work.

Our transport system be it road, rail or ferry is not working for the population.

Let’s get the everyday basics right before we start dreaming about a sub sea celtic tunnel.