In announcing plans in January to extend the scheme to Colonsay residents, Mr Brown said the Government recognises“the social and economic benefits that an extension to this scheme will ... bring”.Ministers boast of the benefit to businesses in the Western Isles of the road equivalent tariff, or RET, the record-breaking pilot scheme targeted solely at that community for reasons best explained by SNP strategists. In that case, the subsidy to business comes at a cost not just to the public purse but to many businesses in Orkney and Shetland that have seen the displacement of tourism traffic and a competitive advantage handed to counterparts in the Western Isles.The reasons offered by ministers for cutting the ADS simply do not stack up.