Government should ask entrepreneurs for help

Why doesn't government group have more business experts like Benny Higgins, asks a reader

The First Minister at her daily briefing yesterday was accompanied by Benny Higgins, chair of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery to the Scottish Government, to comment on his report to the government.

I was interested as to who the members of this group were as I hoped that their experience would have involved jobs and wealth creation. However, it did not take long to establish that, very disappointingly, this was not the case. The group of seven (excluding Benny Higgins) includes four professors, two Dames with experience primarily in the voluntary and public sectors and the General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress.

It beggars belief that this group does not contain any of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs across the likes of financial services, fintech, hospitality and tourism and oil & gas where real jobs are created outside the hugely inflated Scottish public sector. For example, Scotland is the UK’s second largest financial cluster after London, employing more than 85,000 people across banking, asset management and asset servicing, insurance and life & pensions. Scotland’s asset management sector is one of the largest in Europe. The Scottish Government’s report in April 2018 on tourism in Scotland advised that there were more than 14,000 tourism businesses, equating to approximately 1 in 12 of all Scotland’s registered businesses. Fintech is a huge growth area in Scotland, with Dundee leading the way.

It is just extraordinary that this economic advisory group contains no expertise with representation from such Scottish success stories as Skyscanner and Craneware (technology), Wood Group (oil & gas), Weir Group (engineering) and AG Barr (drink), to list just a few.

But I should not be concerned as all our economic ills, mass unemployment and the deterioration in people’s well-being that will follow from this pandemic will be remedied by the usual ‘Green’ panacea. The Advisory Group and the First Minister request greater borrowing powers from the UK government, of course underwritten by the Bank of England.

The First Minister states that this will allow ‘innovative investment solutions’ such as demonstrated by the Scottish Government’s investment in Prestwick Airport. She failed, of course, to mention what the ‘return on capital invested’ has been from Prestwick Airport, or indeed, Ferguson Marine.

Scotland should be immensely proud of our high achievers across the industries I mention above, whose reputations are global.

It is a great shame that our narrow-minded, single issue government fails to see this and does not utilise their talents.

Richard Allison, Braehead Loan, Edinburgh

Mob rule?

I wish to express my complete agreement with the comments made by the Scottish Police Federation’ chairman, David Hamilton, when he states that “it is unacceptable” for any group to “gather under the guise of a particular cause during the pandemic” (your report, 19 June).

More specifically, I believe that it is totally wrong for the Scottish Government not to allow “a family to have more than 10 people mourn the death of a loved one” but to condone a gathering of hundreds of protesters not social distancing, as happened this weekend in George Square in Glasgow and expect the police to ignore their lawbreaking.

I think Mr Hamilton, whose organisation represents rank and file police officers, is right when he alleges police officers are being used as “political pawns to advance or decry the actions of a particular group”.

Obviously, expecting the police to behave in such an inconsistent way makes a mockery of the lockdown rules, exposes police officers themselves to risk of Covid infection and threatens their good relationship with the general public which is essential for the satisfactory working of modern day policing.

As First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon should be representing the interests of all Scots whom she lectures everyday about keeping to her lockdown rules or facing prosecution. Most certainly, she should not be cherry picking any group whom she is happy to allow to break her lockdown rules by mass street protest which encourages further spread of the virus!

As a leader she should not have double standards.

Sally Gordon-Walker, Caiystane Drive, Edinburgh

Stop sniping

Brian Wilson sings the praises of a young footballer, Marcus Rashford (Perspective 20 June) for not having a political axe to grind in forcing the current government to make an embarrassing U-turn. Brian Wilson himself could be directed to bury his own hatchet: his interesting, informed essays are often lowered in tone, any good almost cancelled out, by undignified political sniping. He’ll become a more credible commentator if he loses this habit. Tribalism will be the death of us.

Douglas Hogg, Gordon, Berwickshire

Science friction

I note that the First Minister is seeking ‘scientific advice’ on opening schools. In these times when the UK economy is in tatters, why are the various administrations not working together and using the same ‘advice’ to save money?

The science must be the same, although judging by the FM’s pronouncements recently, you might think that there is advice available in Scotland that nobody else in Europe has access to. I am thinking about outdoor pub beer gardens etc, which seem to be approved elsewhere presumably based on the science. I think that there is a growing body of opinion that points to the FM being unable to make the right political decisions so needed at this time.

James Walker, Union Grove, Aberdeen

Laughing cavaliers?

It would seem no coincidence that three of the world’s most cavalier political leaders preside over populations that have sustained the highest levels of Covid-19 deaths. Wearing face-coverings and physical distancing is for the ‘plebs’, not for pretentious Johnson, Trump or Bolsonaro, nor the chosen sycophants surrounding them who unsurprisingly have succumbed to the virus at even higher rates than their fellow citizens. Perhaps these three populist politicians are intent on progressing economic measures favoured by their self-interested wealthy backers over sound public health policies and the advice of independent health experts. They orchestrated a prelude to global catastrophe that has already seen the devastating Covid-19-related passing of more than a quarter of a million people in the UK, USA and Brazil. But regrettably, this is possibly not even the beginning of the end of this current tragedy because their irresponsible decisions are significantly increasing the likelihood of further waves of the pandemic being propagated which would not only, ironically, have more severe long-term economic consequences but would, tragically, rob the world of far greater numbers of its citizens. How vast do disasters have to become and how many hundreds of thousands of lives lost before otherwise intelligent people stop condoning or at least cease turning a blind eye to the reckless actions of these self-serving individuals?

Stan Grodynski, Gosford Road, Longniddry

Dying to know

While many of us have been quick to point the finger at historical, and indeed, current acts of slavery and unacceptable behaviour regarding racism, I do wonder if future generations will have the same response to how we, at this moment in time, viewed and responded to dying in pain and torment without an acceptable means of medical intervention being offered to exit this mortal coil with a possible peace and dignity.

A thought from a well septuagenarian.

Maureen Graham, Braid House, Edinburgh

It’s politics, innit?

Columnist John McLellan regularly tells us he’s a Conservative councillor. This might explain why, in criticising Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government’s plans to reopen schools, he makes little of the shambles (and subsequent U-turn) created by Boris Johnson’s precipitate boast that all primary schools in England would reopen in June. Mr McLellan says Ms Sturgeon’s decision is ‘political’. As a statement of the obvious, this takes some beating, because that’s what we elect politicians to do, but what is slightly sinister is his implication that this decision has nothing to do with the safety of the young people, their extended families, teachers and other school staff, but is led by some underhand motive.

Statistician Andy Scott joins the debate, saying that children, young people and the middle-aged are at little risk from the virus (Letters, 20 June). He eventually gets round to mentioning the vulnerable, elderly and shielded, but in noting that many children may be asymptomatic, fails to mention that they could take the virus back to those vulnerable group. It may be that to a statistician, a couple of deaths here and there are insignificant.

So the decision is political. If it was not, acres of newsprint would not be being expended on it. However, with more than six weeks to go until the scheduled opening date, the situation could look very different by then and certainly, the Educational Institute of Scotland have deplored the making of this issue into a political wrangle.

Time will tell whether all anger and anxiety have been worthwhile, but we’ve been here before. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Jackson Carlaw, has been vociferous in leading the campaign to have the schools fully reopened. He was similarly active in criticising the Scottish Government over bed blocking and pressing the government to explain what it was going to do to free up beds in hospitals to save the NHS from being overwhelmed.

As the tragedy of the deaths in care homes evolved, the cross-party consensus which supported the policy evaporated and Mr Carlaw was once again at the forefront of the criticism of the Scottish Government. Now, that’s political.

Gill Turner, Derby Street, Edinburgh

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Government should ask entrepreneurs for help – Letters

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