Leader: Sobering home truths about hype

Published on Wednesday 8 September 2010 17:11

IT WAS hailed as a huge economic success that would deliver a £53.7 million boost to the Scottish economy. But the Year of the Homecoming celebrations fell well short of the claims made of it by the SNP administration.

The concept itself had much to commend it. Both the thousands of overseas visitors it attracted and the resident Scots who came in support found much to praise. But the moral of the sobering report by Geoff Riddington of Grid Economics is that over-selling and exaggerating its benefits not only makes for disillusion but could also put imaginative future projects in jeopardy.

Realism should be the touchstone, both for project logistics and for the sums of taxpayer money committed.

The report found that the Year of the Homecoming generated, not the oft-repeated claim of 53.7m of benefits to the Scottish economy, but a more modest boost of 38.8m.

The number of jobs created was over- estimated by 70 per cent. And the amount of public money spent was 8.5m rather than the 5.5m previously quoted.

This independent report does not invalidate the argument for the event, or the clear effort and enthusiasm that went into it. But it blows away the hype that surrounded many of the official pronouncements. And it is over- hyping that invites scepticism, creates disillusion and puts future worthwhile projects at risk.

The lesson should not be lost on St Andrews House.