You would have thought that after the Glenrothes byelection set back the SNP would start to pick their fights a little bit more carefully. However, the SNP seem determined to push this one as far as they can.

First they abolish bridge tolls on the current Forth road bridge. A populist move that may have had something to do with them winning some votes in the kingdom admittedly. But given the uncertainty at the time over the remaining working life of the bridge it wasn't a prudent long term move, as it meant that the SNP could not perform an about turn to introduce tolls to pay for a replacement bridge, or indeed a 2nd bridge. Nor could 'smart' tolls be introduced on the crossing to incentivise green travel or manage congestion.

Then, when it became clear that the current bridge had a much longer lifetime than previously thought, the SNP continued to support the building of another crossing, right next to the current one, despite predictions that this would increase congestion in the surrounding areas, not to mention increases in pollution and CO2 emissions. I'm sure I remember the original proposals, with a fancy dan double decker approach - with trams, cycle lanes, dedicated bus lanes and so on, on a seperate deck from the heavy traffic.

Now, we see these all singing, all dancing proposals stripped right down to a straightforward road bridge, halving the cost of the project to a mere £2billion or so. The cuts make the design even less appealing of course, and will mean that the increased congestion and pollution linked to the bridge will be even worse in the surrounding areas.

The fact that the bridge isn't needed now hasn't detered the SNP from trying to use it to blackmail westminster into providing them with a loan to cover the cost of the project. Unsurprisingly, Gordon Brown isn't going to help Alex Salmond build his vanity project during the credit crunch. However, the idealogical opposition the SNP have to PFI, and the fact that the SNP alternative - the Scottish Futures Trust - hasn't delivered a single capital project whatsoever yet, means that any new bridge must be directly funded by the Scottish Government. This means other capital projects will have to "wait in line".

What are these capital projects that may need to wait? A new hospital in Glasgow? A whole host of urban public transport improvements (like expanding the tram network in Edinburgh, or developing rapid transit in Glasgow), perhaps the SNP could try to comission some new schools some time during their administration? All of this stuff is at risk of cancellation or delay. Investment in all of these areas is badly needed, and would support the development of the 'healthier, wealthier, fairer, greener' scotland that the SNP bang on about all time much better than a new bridge over the Forth.

Meanwhile the Scottish Government seems happy to pledge millions to save art for the nation or to subsidise a further freeze in council taxes.

And of course at the end of the day, there's no guarantee that residents of Fife would even thank the SNP for their efforts.

The big question is whether the ever higher stakes grievance politics of the SNP is going to keep washing with the Scottish people. A surprisingly large number of people seem to love it and buy the claptrap about 'sticking up for Scotland,' when really the SNP seems to be doing nothing but sticking up for the SNP and Alex Salmonds need to appear in ever more high profile press launches.