Calls are being made for the building of a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Prominent supporters include the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on whom Mrs May depends to win votes in Parliament. On 12 June Boris Johnson said the idea should be seriously explored. In the past most people thought a tunnel would be best, as Alistair Lexden explained in a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on 15 June.
SIR--Support is mounting for a bridge between Scotland and Ulster (report, June 12 and Letters, 13 June).
This has never happened before. In the past it was the possibility of creating a tunnel that absorbed attention. In 1897 an engineering genius, Luke Livingston Macassey, who had provided Belfast with a reliable water supply for the first time, drew up detailed plans for a 21-mile rail tunnel between the city and Stranraer, having dismissed the case for a bridge.
A strong Unionist government under Lord Salisbury was in office. Its loyal MPs from Ulster pressed for a grant of £15,000 to get exploratory work started. They received a sniffy reply: “The financial aspects are not of a very promising character”. Unlike the DUP today, they lacked the power to force the government’s hand. So too did their successors when an attempt was made in the Fifties to resurrect the proposal.
Macassey’s plans survive. The DUP should get Mrs May’s ministers to re-examine them.
Lord Lexden
London SW1