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Fuel Duty (Rural Areas)

The hon. Gentleman is perfectly correct, and I fully endorse what he has said. I propose that the pilot scheme should run on one or two islands, and once it has been proven to work, it could be extended to other parts of the country. I am absolutely convinced that such a pilot scheme would be workable. As we heard earlier in the debate, France, Greece and Portugal have tried such schemes on their islands, and it is perfectly compatible with EU law, so I urge the Treasury to look at how those countries have implemented the schemes, try a pilot scheme on one or two islands and, if it is successful, extend it to other parts of the country. The SNP Government in Edinburgh have cut ferry fares to the western isles but have neglected the other islands of Scotland. I suggest to the Government here that they could be seen to be helping the islands of Scotland if they introduced a trial scheme on some of them. I suggest that the larger islands of Mull and Islay would be ideal for a pilot scheme. That would allow the Government to say to the people of Scotland that they, too, are helping the islands and that it is not just the SNP Government who are making an effort to help them. It must be said that the SNP Government have been of no help to the islands in my constituency, and are only of help to the islands in a constituency represented by an SNP Member.—[Interruption.] In response to all these sedentary interventions, I note that no SNP Members are present for the debate.