Put a 7pm curfew on free under 22 bus passes - John McLellan

Under 22s are entitled to free bus travel in Scotland (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

Scrutiny varies from venue to venue, but they all know where they are likely to be successful and even if rumbled, a replacement can always be found.

It’s against that background that the Labour Party’s proposal of stripping youths guilty of anti-social behaviour on public transport of their free bus travel should be set. The card trade will just extend to bus passes.

Since under 22s were granted free bus travel, reports of drivers being abused have risen and a survey of 1100 bus drivers by the Unite union found 84 per cent said abuse had increased in the last 12 months, 16 per cent of it physical, most unreported.

As most of it occurs at night and is drink or drugs related, the simple answer is a curfew, whereby free travel isn’t available after 7pm, just like the night buses, but youth campaigners say this is just demonising all young people, not dealing with the perpetrators.

The scheme was primarily designed to help access education and training and a curfew keeps that intact. But why should travel to nights out for people in their early 20s be paid in full by taxpayers?

Neither Labour nor the SNP worry much about taxpayers’ money, but it’s a strange day when they don’t want to do all they can to protect workers.