Brexit has slammed shut so many windows of opportnity​​​​​​​ - Lesley McLeod

Despite grand designs the old Royal High School never became our parliament building. This crumbling dowager, languishing on the skyline, is two hundred years old this year. It was designed by Thomas Hamilton, a Scottish architect responsible for many our capital’s most impressive – and iconic – civic buildings. He built in a style that reeks of home to Scots the world over: that conjures Caledonian dreams for many more. In contrast, the newer Holyrood building is, I know, not everyone’s cup of tea. But, say what you like about Enric Miralles’ evocation of Scotland and her people, it’s certainly a statement piece. And one, arguably, we couldn’t build today.

And that’s not because the project’s guiding light died before it was completed. Or even because it was eye-wateringly expensive and late opening. It’s simply because employing anyone from outside the UK is increasingly complex.

Now, I’m no fan of Brexit but I understand the argument that chimed with many people was the promise of more work for home-grown talent and an economy that rewarded high skills with better wages. That seems a fantasy employment strategy today. There are shortages in key industries and unrest about the pay and conditions of our colleagues – whether they are nurses or train drivers, firefighters or care home staff. We’ve all heard stories of vegetables and fruit rotting in the fields because farmers can’t find people to pick the crops. Certainly not at a price anyone can afford to pay.

We’ve all been told about occupations in such demand they get special dispensations to allow people to come here to work. We’ve been promised a fairer, points-based system. But still not all jobs in search of workers are on the list. Look at any building site and you’ll see hoardings crying out for bricklayers. And that’s just an example from construction. I work for the Association for Project Safety (APS) and our members largely come from the fields of architecture and engineering. Today, neither can we bring in the next architectural enfant terrible (if I may be so French) but UK qualifications are no longer automatically recognised in Europe. This limits employment opportunities for Scottish-qualified professionals in the built environment – and those in other sectors or from other parts of our country too. It makes us all poorer – certainly in cultural terms – as we lose the benefits of breathing in the ideas you bring home when you’ve lived and worked in another country.

Lesley McLeod, CEO, Association for Project Safety

That infamous – but contested – maxim said fog in the channel signalled the Continent was cut off. Today – and for the foreseeable future – what’s fogging up the system is not our weather but an ideology that failed to take into account what would have to be done, the numbers of people we were going to need to do it all and the fact they couldn’t all possibly be educated and trained as quickly as their counterparts had to pack up and leave.

While some may well have wanted to build the barricades, others wanted to retain freedom of movement. They – and younger people who had no say at all - have had the door shut in their faces from the inside.

Lesley McLeod, CEO, Association for Project Safety