We Stand for Jobs - We Stand for Scotland

by Kenny MacAskill MSP

INTRODUCTION

The statement ‘we will create employment’ is one that has featured in divergent political manifestos since time immemorial.  Now, more than ever, it is a challenge that must be addressed, and solutions to this problem are now more complex than ever.

First the rise of the European Union, and now the Globalisation of the world’s economy means that national prosperity is only achievable if our nation is able to compete with our peers.

This means that old philosophies of direct Government job creation (which in the past have simply been unsuccessful, and in the present are illegal) must give way to progressive measures, which will achieve sustainable jobs.  These should be tailored to the national good rather than simply being tailored to reduce an unemployment figure in a specific area.

SCOTTISH ADVANTAGES
Scotland has a number of specific advantages, which must be pursued if we are to be successful. We are technological leaders in a number of niche sectors, where it is not just products, but skills that are valuable on the world stage.   We have a reputation as a skilled nation. We have a strong manufacturing and exporting base.

Unfortunately, recent Government policy has worked to undermine each of these advantages, when our success depends on building on these strengths.  The Scottish National Party will reverse that trend.

SCOTTISH DISADVANTAGES
Scotland also has a number of specific disadvantages, which must be overcome.  Not least of which is our peripherality, and the rural nature of much of Scotland. These are factors of our geography, and should not be allowed to erect further barriers between our national successes.

AN ECONOMIC CLIMATE TO END UNEMPLOYMENT
Our philosophy is based on building on Scotland’s strengths, and tackling the weaknesses that inhibit growth.
More than anything, we are determined to create a specific Scottish economic policy suited to the economic profile of our nation, rather than settle for a compromise that is suited to the average assessed needs of the UK.

We are committed to the following principals

BUILDING A MODERN INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructural issues are vital to Scotland’s success in the new millennium. A nation’s infrastructure is the backdrop to economic development, and the canvass on which success is painted.

In a global economy, and on the geographic peripherality of Europe, Scotland cannot afford to continue with a second-class infrastructure.

TRANSPORT
Neglect in our transport infrastructure has left Scotland an unenviable legacy.  It is unavoidable that we are on the geographic periphery of Europe, and that there is distance between our nation and our markets.    It is not unavoidable that we have a poor transport network within our nation, and are under-provided in terms of links beyond our shores.

We firstly must address matters within our nation.  That means an investment in our road and rail services.  It means ending the situation that has left without a motorway between our two major cities, and it means ending the farce that leaves Scotland with the highest fuel and transport costs in Europe – despite being the largest oil producer in Europe.

We must then address matters beyond our shores.  To date the Scottish Executive have been happy to sit back and ignore the fact that direct flights to Scotland are inadequate, and instead of acting as a transatlantic hub, Scotland is simply a spoke for London connections.  Again this is about a pro-active Government attitude, not a laissez-faire approach to the free-market.

BROADBAND
The new technologies offered through internet services, entertainment services, and the global market on line provide Scotland with the opportunity to ditch the difficulties of geographic peripherality once and for all.

The new technologies can offer most to our rural communities.  In the world on-line, rural peripherality is not relevant.  However, if Scotland cannot achieve deliver high-speed broadband access across our nation, even our electronic community will be left as the electronic equivalent of a rural backwater, where access is slow, and connections to the rest of the world are unreliable.

WITHIN SCOTLAND
We are determined to provide all of Scotland with access to broadband telecommunications services.  While the Executive seem satisfied with a lassez faire approach where availability is governed by economic return, the SNP take the view that access to broadband services is a right for all of Scotland.  At the moment, it is acknowledged that as little as 60 per cent of Scotland will be connected to broadband services.  The areas that need connection most – the rural areas – will be left behind.

This is not satisfactory, and following the example of other nations, such as Ireland and Finland, the SNP is determined to use public investment to lever sufficient capital investment from the private sector to connect our entire nation.

CONNECTING SCOTLAND TO THE WORLD
Demand and growth of internet services world-wide is driving international companies to provide more and more international cable capacity for internet traffic. Transatlantic and pan-European cable crossings are being strengthened built and added to as the information superhighway crosses the globe.  But Scotland is being bypassed, and we currently depend on a connection through London for all our internet traffic. International cabling literally runs right passed Scotland on its journey south to Canary Wharf.

Scotland needs its own internet connection to the world.  Ireland has achieved this at no cost, simply by taking a pro-active role with industry, and being prepared to invest in international transmission lines for the national good.
Scotland is in a unique position as a gateway to Northern Europe and the USA, and we must follow the Irish model to ensure that Scotland an international internet node, rather than being bypassed by the world’s wiring.

UPSKILLING SCOTLAND FOR THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
The most valuable asset of any nation is its population, and the route to prosperity is through a skilled and educated population.

HIGHER EDUCATION
Scotland has a proud history of free education, a post-war advance that enabled an ever-increasing number of people to attend university, to achieve their maximum potential.

Labour’s approach to end student grants and implement tuition fees was a regressive step, which have made long-term debt and higher education synonymous.

This is a short-term view in the extreme, and in the long term is unlikely to result in a more highly educated Scotland.   Investment in our people through education is not simply an investment in the individual, but an investment in the nation.
The Liberal sell-out to the Labour fudge of moving tuition fees from the start to the end of a university course is no solution to stopping the damage that will be done by Labour’s policy of ending free education. A tuition fee is a tuition-fee whether charged at the beginning or at the end of a University course.

THE SKILLS SHORTAGE
There is no doubt that in certain key sectors, Scotland faces a tremendous skills shortage.  An examination of the age profile of different sectors within the oil and electronics industries makes this point clear.  Within transport and construction, there continues to be a shortage of skilled labour.

The Government has poured hundreds of millions into the New Deal, which should have been an opportunity to improve Scotland’s skills base.  Yet the problem remains unresolved, and New Deal remains focussed on changing the Government’s claimant count statistics rather than working as a route to real employment.

There needs to be a drastic re-alignment of skills training, and it must start with an identification of where Scottish skills shortages lie, and where future skills shortages may be found.

We should then be in the position of offering skills training which is about more than a scheme to reduce the monthly unemployment figures, but is about identifying the areas where there are skills shortages and job opportunities, and up-skilling Scotland to meet this shortage.  This is the route to sustained employment rather than a fiddle to keep people off the figures

CREATING A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
Arguably, main factors which governments can influence to drive a nation’s competitiveness are the economic levers, most of which are currently retained in London.

Taxation, membership of the single currency, interest rates, controls over inflation and net public expenditure are all reserved powers.  Yet all are essential to a successful national economic policy.

Scotland has not been well served by a London economic policy.  There is little surprise here, because our national economic profile is different to that of the UK.  What indeed can be expected when comparing a nation of 50 million with a nation of 5 million?

The consequences are obvious.  Scottish unemployment is running 1.2 per cent ahead of the UK figure.  We have lost 30,000 manufacturing jobs since Labour came to power as a result of an economic policy that has seriously damaged our exports and our manufacturing.

While the Chancellor talks endlessly about ending ‘boom and bust’ and proclaiming economic success with low inflation, Scotland pays the price.  It was the Governor of the Bank of England, Eddie George who expressed this most clearly when he advised that job losses in the North were a price worth paying for economic stability in London.

The pain has well and truly been felt in Scotland.  The textiles industry, paper manufacturers and indeed anyone who sees their profits lost when the purchase of raw materials and the export of manufactured goods hit both by currency values.

The profusion of red tape, the inequity of clumsy new measures such as the climate change levy, is not appropriate to Scotland.  We are a small nation. Our sectors are easily identified, our economic policy, our regulation and administration must be tailored around them, and where appropriate made sector specific, rather than taking a London-based broad-brush approach which sweeps many away through in-built inflexibility.

A CULTURE OF ENTREPRENEURS
For too long the entrepreneurial spirit of Scotland has been neglected. This is reflected by the fact that the business birth rate in Scotland is almost a third lower than the UK figure.

It is not through lack of ideas or innovation.  Scotland has a long history of technological advance, being the birthplace of, for example laser technology, and liquid crystal displays.

Too often, however the opportunities of such innovation are neglected, and the transition from prototype to production is lost to those overseas who are willing to put up the money.

It can be argued that this type of transition needs a cultural shift, but it is not something that the Government can wash its hands of.

We must make it easy and desirable for people who wish to take ideas and innovations into the real of business reality.  This means that our nation must be prepared to allow innovators to take risks.  We must address the difficulties caused by the lack of availability of venture capital.  We must tackle the delays and inconsistencies in obtaining business support from the network of enterprise agencies and local authorities.

The recent proposed reforms of the enterprise network are welcome in that processes should be streamlined, but there must be a cultural and policy shift which allows more investment in areas where there is perceived to be an element of business risk.

It is unreasonable to expect such risks to be borne by the individual, and if we, as a nation are not prepared to speculate to accumulate then we cannot expect to retain and develop the ideas that our nation has into production models.

SELLING SCOTLAND TO THE WORLD
Scotland is, and must remain a strong manufacturing and exporting nation.  We are to no small extent dependent on inward investment from multinationals and tourism is one of our largest employers.

These functions all have one thing in common, and that is our need to be represented and marketed throughout the world.
At present, Scottish commercial representation overseas is as unwieldy as the enterprise network is at home. Locate in Scotland; Scottish Trade International and Scotland House represent Scotland’s commercial interests in other nations. Tourism is under the remit of the Scottish Tourist Board in some locations, and under the British Tourist Authority in others.

There needs to be a more cohesive structure and a broader overarching aim.  The aim itself should be simple.  That is to sell Scotland in all its facets across the world.

The method should also be simple.  That is for Scotland’s representation to be multi-functional
Of course there must be recognition that emphasis will be different in different areas.

The Scottish Exports market, for example is particularly sector specific, and definition can easily be given to the areas where major markets lie.

But we should not confine or restrict our activities, nor should we place additional hurdles for those who are considering buying or selling or paying a visit to Scotland.  A single site, a single point of information and access, and a single agency whose ability to sell Scotland is closely tailored to local conditions.

This is the philosophy adopted by other devolved administrations, and so it should be the case for Scotland.  The Legation de Quebec is pro-active in selling Quebec.  Similarly Export Vaalanderen for Flanders, which has nearly three times the representation that Scotland, does through its variety of bodies.

We must acknowledge that in the 21st century it’s not just access to markets that matters, but a detailed knowledge of the working of those markets.

Scotland must have its own commercial ‘eyes and ears’ to ensure that we are aware of changing conditions across the globe, and able to meet altering requirements and take advantage of new situations quickly.

While the biggest commercial players may be able to afford international offices, SMEs are not.

The opening of a network of commercial embassies will allow the Government to act as a facilitator for business, allowing previously untapped markets to be developed, for trading, for investment, and for tourism.

It is not possible to do this under current Scottish arrangements, which are too diffuse.  Neither is this function to be carried out adequately by the network of British outposts and departments. They are justifiably focussed on the needs and strengths of the British economy, which are often not coincidental with the Scottish economy.

The beginnings of an infrastructure for Scotland overseas are in place.  We must be prepared firstly to make our overseas representation multifunction, and secondly to build and expand that network, in acknowledgement of the fact that Scotland needs to be a player tuned to the global economy.

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