The return of peak rail fares has been the subject of some very heated debate in the last week.

It is, as noted in my column in The Herald on Friday, a perfectly valid topic for debate.

However, this debate must take in the reality of the situation, notably the excruciating fiscal constraints put in place by the Conservatives and Labour’s clear signals that it will be continuing with the strictures adopted on this front by the previous incumbents.

The chief executive of industry body Scottish Financial Enterprise claimed last week that the return of peak fares on ScotRail is a “tax on work”. He highlighted in particular the burden on people of the return of peak fares for commuters travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh, The off-peak all-day fares trial at ScotRail, which is owned by the Scottish Government, ended on September 27.

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SFE chief executive Sandy Begbie said last Monday: “The return of peak rail fares will be felt by commuters from across our sector, not least those travelling between Scotland’s major cities to get to work.”

He claimed: “Peak fares are a tax on work, with knock-on implications for what people spend in other parts of the economy. Their return will also have a negative impact on social mobility and opportunities for people to seek career advancement across Scotland.”

Trade unions and environmental groups united to launch a petition demanding the permanent abolition of peak fare pricing.

Scottish Trades Union Congress deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said: “Reintroducing peak fares is a slap in the face for working people across Scotland who depend on affordable public transport to get to work. This decision blatantly contradicts the Government’s own commitments to reducing carbon emissions and creating a fairer society.

“If we are serious about tackling the climate crisis and supporting workers, the Scottish Government must end this outdated and unfair fare structure. Scrapping peak fares permanently isn’t just the right thing to do - it’s essential for a just and sustainable future. By launching this petition, we aim to amplify public frustration on this issue and urge the Government to reconsider their stance.”

This is all well and good.

However, Scottish Government agency Transport Scotland has estimated the annual cost of abolishing peak fares at about £40 million.

And this is a very big amount of money in the context of excruciating decisions which are already having to be taken on spending priorities by the Scottish Government.

This has included spending on pay deals for public sector workers.

These pay rises have seemed perfectly reasonable, and the trade unions have a duty to members hammered by a cost-of-living crisis fuelled by the previous Conservative administration at Westminster to secure such deals. However, everything has to be paid for.

That is not to say it has to be this way: that it is just too difficult to spend an extra £40m a year on the abolition of peak rail fares on a permanent basis in these grim times.

However, to make it not so would require a change of heart by the new Labour Government at Westminster.

It could loosen the fiscal purse strings and abolish peak rail fares south of the Border, with equivalent money flowing to Scotland to do likewise.

This would have the advantages that Mr Moxham highlights for the environment and also provide a much-needed boost to working people.

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It would also help businesses by ensuring that people had a bit more disposable income to spend with them.

Sadly, the idea of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer loosening the purse strings to enable this looks, to put it mildly, like a long shot.

The Scottish Government deserves credit for trialling the removal of peak fares.

When it announced in August that peak fares would be reintroduced in late September, the Scottish Government estimated the pilot scheme had boosted demand for ScotRail services by around 6.8%.

It calculated that a 10% increase in demand for ScotRail services was required to ensure the cost of removing peak fares was paid for through the growth in rail travel generated.

And, as noted in my column on Friday: “The Scottish Government would presumably, for its part, have liked to have declared the scheme to remove peak fares had been self-financing and to continue with it on a permanent basis.

“It would clearly not have been in the Scottish Government’s interests to have desired an outcome where it was going to cost a lot of money to make the pilot arrangements permanent, as turned out to be the case, thereby giving it a very difficult political decision and one that has clearly not been popular with many.”

As this debate rages, it is important to recognise who has the power to enable the permanent removal of peak fares if this is considered a desirable thing: the UK Government, by loosening the purse strings.

And people should stop lambasting the Scottish Government for what was a valiant effort on this front.

On a happier note, there was some heartening news last week from Scotch whisky giant William Grant & Sons.

The family-owned group, which employs around 3,000 people and late last month announced it was acquiring The Famous Grouse and Naked Malt blended Scotch whisky brands from Glasgow-based Edrington, revealed last Monday it had raised after-tax profits to £444 million in the year to December 31, 2023, from £331.3m in the prior 12 months.

And it announced it had increased its turnover to £1.962 billion last year, from £1.721bn in 2022.

My column in The Herald on Wednesday noted the long-term thinking flagged by William Grant & Sons itself as it announced its results. The column highlighted the crucial part which such an approach, as opposed to the woeful short-termism we see so much in the corporate world, can play in the success of a business.