Cheer up for goodness’ sake, Holyrood told

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore has urged the Scottish Government to “cheer up” after a UK funding allocation for rural broadband was described as disappointing.

The Scottish Government received £68.8 million from the UK government to roll out broadband in rural Scotland, £25m more than if it had been calculated on the basis of population share using the Barnett formula.

Commenting on the announcement, Scottish infrastructure secretary Alex Neil said he was “disappointed with the allocation”.

However, Mr Moore said yesterday that UK ministers recognise the need for extra finance for Scottish broadband.

He said: “The Scottish Government needs to be more upbeat. It takes a rather sour outlook to turn nearly £70m into a setback. Cheer up for goodness’ sake and get on with delivering the improvements to our rural communities.

“Instead of looking for the negative, they should step up and meet the challenge of matching UK government investment in broadband.”

Following Mr Moore’s comments, Mr Neil said: “We do find it funny that Mr Moore, as Secretary of State for Scotland, appears unaware that this funding allocation doesn’t reflect the fact that Scotland has a third of the UK landmass and some of the most remote areas in these islands.”