A killing cure

Published on 19/07/2012 00:00

With the latest GDP figures showing a marginal 0.1 per cent fall in Scotland – compared with a 0.4 per cent drop over the same period for the UK (your report, 18 July) – it is vital that Prime Minister Cameron delivers more capital funding to the Scottish Government for shovel-ready projects.

While latest figures showing that the Scottish employment rate is higher and the unemployment rate is now lower than the UK average are indeed heartening, the fall in Scottish GDP was entirely driven by a drop in the construction sector, while the services and production sectors continued to expand.

Monday’s downward revision by the IMF to its growth forecast for the UK economy in 2012 to just 0.2 per cent demonstrates that more needs to be done by the UK Government to kick-start the economy in the form of capital investment to stimulate growth and jobs.

The UK Government’s austerity medicine is killing, not 
curing, the patient, and it is 
interesting to note that despite the negative impression given of the economic situation in the eurozone, it still grew at twice the rate of the UK economy last year. We need a further Westminster U-turn to deliver the increase in capital spending required to make an immediate difference.

Alex Orr

Leamington Terrace

Edinburgh