New technologies take over from jute and jam

Published on Saturday 17 February 2007 00:26

ONCE renowned throughout the world for jute, jam and journalism, Dundee is in the throes of a major transformation.

The recent announcement of job losses at "the Cash" - the NCR cash machine plant in the city - was the latest in a series of hammer-blows to Dundee's once thriving manufacturing base.

But the city is fast making a name for itself at the cutting-edge of a range of new technologies, spearheaded by the biomedical, life sciences and computer technology companies which are springing up on the outskirts of the city, pointing to a new and brighter future for the City of Discovery.

Local companies account for 10 per cent of Britain's digital entertainment industry.

They are bringing a new sense of prosperity to the Tayside capital, exemplified by the bustling shops at the showpiece Overgate Centre. There is evidence of a thriving and buoyant economy, drawing in shoppers from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Perth and the East Neuk of Fife. But that masks the continuing problems of deprivation in a number of areas of Dundee.

More than half the city's council wards are among the 16 most deprived in Scotland and fewer than half the homes in Dundee are owner-occupied. The Whitfield area has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK at 96 per cent and the city had the highest rate of abortions in Scotland in 2004 and has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Western Europe.

This often hidden face of the city is highlighted by Duncan McDonald, 44, a housing manager from Claverhouse in Dundee. He says: "Dundee certainly is a fairly wealthy city but it has areas of multiple deprivation and that is masked.

There is too much focus at the moment on anti-social behaviour by teenagers and young adults and I think we have to start focusing on kids now. Let's accept that teenagers now weren't brought up as well as they should have been and start dealing with kids in school, changing the priorities to help them.

"There are a lot of families in multiple deprivation and we should support them more, so that they can help their children when they become parents."

He continues: "It is sad a lot of major employers have left. But there are areas like computer games and medical research emerging. The city is getting away from the manufacturing base and it's getting into new areas that could provide lot of jobs in the future."

Asked his view on 300 years of Union, Mr McDonald replies: "I think the UK has been a good thing. We are sharing the same land and I think it's right that we share our resources. I'm not convinced by the arguments for an independent Scotland. I also think the Scottish Parliament has some value, but for me it has still to deliver the goods. It's still on a learning curve."

His support for the united parliaments was echoed by a very narrow majority of the people interviewed by The Scotsman with a number of disaffected Labour and even Tory voters expressing a new allegiance to an independent Scotland.

Several people predicted a major change in the political control of the city at the May elections, with the SNP ousting Labour for the first time.

Fraser Milne, 25, studying for a PhD in civil engineering at Dundee University, says: "I am totally convinced we should be independent now; I think economically the case is won. I also believe Scotland should be an equal member of the international community - of the EU and United Nations. I don't see how in the modern age we need to be ruled from Westminster to be able to show solidarity with folk in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. I think we need something new - ambition and optimism rather than what we've got at the moment."

The student is quick to praise the city where undergraduates are almost 15 per cent of the population. He says: "It's a great city and the university is fantastic. It's really cosmopolitan. On the civil engineering course, we have guys from across the world. That's a great advert for Dundee."

However, Vicki Dreyer, 46, who had travelled to Dundee to shop from her home in Lower Largo, Fife, voiced concern about a growing anti-English backlash. She said: "I was born in Falkirk, and grew up all over the place and ended up in England. I never came across any anti-Scottish feeling in England. But the anti-English feeling I have witnessed and heard of since returning to Scotland is awful. My son was educated in Edinburgh and he had an English accent because my husband is English and the ridicule and bullying he experienced is pathetic.

"People make huge assumptions in Scotland because of the way you speak. It's a narrow-minded, parochial view."

WHAT DOES THE UNION MEAN TO YOU?

"When there was an empire, Scotland did OK with the Union. But after the turn of the 19th/20th century, things started getting pear-shaped and Scotland has had a raw deal since then. Policies have not been sensitive to the needs of Scotland."

Fiona McArthur, 55, from Memus, near Forfar

"The Union has probably been a good thing over the years - I say that as a nationalist. I see us on the road to independence now, but whether we would have made a go of it 300 years ago, I doubt it. I don't think kids get a fair shake these days ... a lot leave school early and there's no job opportunities for them; they turn to drugs and crime and that's a big concern."

Benny Carr, 51, offshore toolpusher, Dundee

"Dependency culture across Scotland has been brought about because of the Act of Union. In the 16th century, Dundee was one of the most important cities in the world."

Chick Brodie, 62, Dundee

"I think it's a good thing to be part of the UK. I don't know if we would have got as far as we have if we weren't part of it."

Lynsey Campbell, 30, Blairgowrie, Perthshire

"I think it is good what Scotland's parliament has done, particularly for pensioners. People have short memories and forget what it was like ten years ago when the Tories ran Britain."

Gordon Childs, 68

"I am not in favour of the Union, but I am not a nationalist. I was Labour and I think Blair has pushed them too far towards the Tories. I would like to see Scotland having go at independence."

Danny McCabe, 71, ex-bricklayer, Dundee

"I think it's nonsense this talk of independence. The parliament does a bad enough job as it is. Having said that, it would be good to have a change of administration, even to the SNP."

Mary Ronaldson, 64, Broughty Ferry