Robert Moses used to start the building bridges and motorways in new york without permission, knocking houses and parks down that were in the way so that when there was pushback, he was all 'we've put all this effort in already, we might as continue, people will be out of work now, there is too much cost to stop, blah blah blah' and he got away with it.
I don't want to give the SFA a level of credit to their smarts here, but this is a bit how it feels like tbh.