Leader: Call for clarity is no ‘negative’ tirade

ENTREPRENEUR Jim McColl has taken CBI Scotland chief Iain McMillan to task for what he describes as a “negative attitude” on the issue of independence.

He says the organisation “has only ever adopted a negative attitude to constitutional change of any kind” and that it “is not serving the best interests of Scotland’s business community”.

Mr McColl is one of Scotland’s most successful business leaders. This year he sold his company ClydeUnion Pumps for £750 million, and he now lives in Monaco. He is a well-known SNP supporter, and his intervention will be music to the ears of Alex Salmond, who faces a major test in winning over heavyweight Scottish business opinion for a Yes vote in the independence referendum.

Now, it is certainly true that a number of businesses will be on Mr McColl’s side – even within CBI Scotland. And it is only fair that their voice should be heard.

But Mr McMillan’s speech last week was no negative tirade. He posed a series of key questions – on monetary policy, taxation and regulation – where businesses the length and breadth of the land require clarity.

It is not negative to seek to know what the fiscal regime is likely to be, whether there will be separate rates of corporation tax and VAT, and how income tax is going to be administered.

And difficult though these questions are, they will require to be answered for the good of Scotland as well as for the business community.