OUR First Minister outlines his idea that an independent Scotland will create a Ministry For Industrial Policy. Great stuff. There is a problem, however; a major drawback blights this aspiration. We must, firstly, have an independent Scotland. Until we get that, our First Minister is in dreamland!
Until all the independence advocates focus their efforts on step one of achieving Scottish independence, we will be getting nowhere! It’s all very well saying “When we get independence we’re going to ... (this, that, or the next thing).” But why keep listing these ambitions when there is a lack of focus on achieving step one?
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All the current opinion polls show there is still a majority in the “No” camp. My suggestion – to all SNP, Alba and Scottish Greens – is stop producing pipe dreams, stop having petty squabbles about who is comfortable at Westminster and who is doing the job, and start spending time and effort convincing the naysayers that Scotland will be so much better off as a functioning democracy, rather than the vassal of Westminster that it currently is!
Unfortunately the largest party, the SNP, have lost their most formidable figurehead. The leech that is the British establishment know it’s essential to cling on to the Scottish cash-cow and have successfully neutered the protagonist and establishment thorn that is Nicola Sturgeon. The alleged SNP accounting anomaly was a gift from heaven for them, and they exploited it to the full!
Unfortunately we have come to see that Humza Yousaf, good man that he might be, is never going to achieve the level of esteem or charisma that Nicola commanded and we see a drift back to the “I vote Labour ‘cos ma faither voted Labour” camp.
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So, what can we, mere mortals who don’t hold political office, do to sway the Unionists? My plan involves agreeing with the politically disenchanted. Yes, all politicians are liars. Would it, then, not be preferable to have these mountebanks who purport to represent us closer to us, not 300-plus miles away in another country? This would then place their throats closer to hand and allow us to apply pressure when they fail us!
The bulk of Scotland’s electorate must be convinced that, unless their cross on the ballot paper is for an independence-backing party, it will make absolutely no difference to the outcome of an English election result and, therefore, the governance of Scotland.
The current SNP/Alba/Scottish Green gang, at Westminster and Holyrood, need to make “step one: independence” the theme and emphasis of their song-sheets and make it their mantra, nothing else. They can argue over their pipe dreams but only when we get there!
Ned Larkin
Inverness
IT did not take too long to digest the contents of the First Minister’s recent speech to an invited audience at Glasgow University. There was not much meat on the bones.
A large part of the speech seemed to revolve around the creation of a Ministry for Industrial Policy. He described how this new government department would be responsible for designing and delivering new policies. It is rather hard to see why this department could not be set up tomorrow with a minor Scottish Cabinet reshuffle well within the existing powers of the Scotland Act. If not, that might actually be a Section 35 court case worth fighting.
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Does the portfolio of Neil Gray MSP, the current Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, not include much, even all, of this subject matter?
Also on the First Minister’s wishlist was the creation of an “Industrial Policy Council” to provide “independent advice, direction, monitoring and evaluation” composed of experts and practitioners from business, academia, and unions and drawing in expertise and experience from beyond Scotland’s borders. Again I cannot see why this has to wait for Scottish independence.
The “special fund to kick start investment” would of course have to wait for an independent Scotland. The “initial estimate” seems to be that the fund would be used to “undertake capital spending of up to £20 billion over the first decade of independence”. Where this money is to come from however seems far from certain as it appears to rely on declining tax revenues from North Sea oil and borrowing from as-yet-undisclosed lenders.
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The Scottish Greens environment spokesperson was very quick to say “it should not and must not be viewed as an excuse to develop any more oil and gas fields or extend their lives a moment longer than is absolutely necessary.”
Extracting even part of the £20 billion from an oil industry forced into decline and by then even lacking a refinery, and borrowing further billions, possibly in foreign currency, while muttering the Green mantra of “just transition – no just stop oil” is stretching credibility beyond its breaking point.
John Baird
Largs
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