(10)  Over the Sea to Skye (2)

Mr Donnie Munro was not elected Labour MP for Skye (see No 4 below), but on 4 July 1997 the Scottish Office announced that the price of toll tickets for the Skye Bridge sold in bulk, previously £2.51, would be reduced to £1.25, and charges for buses and heavy goods vehicles would also come down. On 8 July the Lord Advocate announced that only persistent non-payers would be prosecuted henceforth. On 10 July Sheriff James Fraser at Dingwall held that the Skye Bridge Toll Order did not specify whether the driver, passenger or owner of a vehicle should pay the toll, and accordingly non-payers committed no offence. On 25 July the High Court of Justiciary (Lord Justice-General Rodger presiding) overturned the sheriff’s ruling (1997 GWD 27-1372). Robbie the Pict, legal secretary of Skye and Kyle Against the Tolls (SKAT), commented: “You could say we have been Rodgered.”