Politics
A letter to Mr Salmond
Gordon Lawrie
Dear Alex Salmond
We have met on two occasions. The first was when I was I was an idealistic young pup of 14. A combination of having recently studied the Highland Clearances and of watching 'Braveheart' with my father (albeit with the more gruesome scenes fast forwarded) had convinced me that England was in fact a creation of Beelzebub himself and that Scotland must have her independence.
So it was that during the Scottish parliamentary elections of 1999 I was campaigning for the SNP when you came to town. You told me it was excellent that I was interested in politics from such a young age and that people like me were the future of the country. I believe I told you that one day I would be president of the Scottish Republic. Such are the dreams of youth.
The next time we would meet was eight years later. It was the day of the third reading of the 2004 higher education bill. I was waiting in the central lobby of the Palace of Westminster for a meeting with my MP in a futile, last-minute attempt to persuade him to rebel. You were on your way to record a piece for evening news; however, we did get a chance to have a brief conversation. I asked for your reassurance that you would vote against the bill. You told me that it was important that bright young people were not barred from education by financial constraints. You told me it was impressive that I was passionate enough to travel all the way from Scotland to defend free education. I told you that I was simply there to protect the country's future.
Alex, shortly the campaign for the Scottish parliamentary elections will begin in earnest. Whilst it is clear that the Liberal Democrats will deservedly be punished harshly for cosying up to the Tories and that the Tories will be punished harshly at the polls for merely being Tories, it is not yet apparent if it will be you or Iain Gray who is first minister come the 6th of May.
I have come a long way since those halcyon days of 1999 and no longer support your quest for independence. This comes down to pure, hard economics rather than any substantive shift in my ideology, though my teenage xenophobia has been replaced by a much more mature dislike of Mel Gibson. In June I argued on these very pages that Scotland's economy was broken and that we needed a return to research and manufacturing to fix it.
I am heartened that both your party and Labour on Monday announced plans to boost the number of apprentices in the country. This is a fine policy but it is not enough. As the recession begins to bite in earnest, many of my graduate friends find themselves either in jobs wholly unsuitable for their qualifications or not in work at all. Several are about to be thrown out of their current entry-level jobs with local authorities. Apprenticeships will not help them. Unless action is taken, we risk squandering a whole generation. This must not happen.
Encouraging people to take control of their own employment, their own livelihoods and ultimately their own destinies will yield better results for the economy than creating any number of new service sector jobs.
Alex, I understand that Scottishindependence is your party's raison d'être. However it cannot be your main platform this time around. If Scotland is ever to be independent she must first have a vibrant and sustainable economy. We must remove our reliance on the public sector. While England is paralysed by a cancerous dependence on the banking sector, we must excise that tumour. While the Tories are busy looking after their big business chums, you must outflank the bunch of Bullingdon bigots and make Scotland the place where small business grows and thrives.
In 1997 Tony Blair ran on a platform of 'Education, Education, Education'. In 2011 'Innovation, Innovation, Innovation' must be your clarion cry.
David Cameron has announced plans to bring back the Thatcherite enterprise support allowance. This scheme replaces benefits with grants to help start a small business. Whilst Thatcher did much harm, this was one of her better policies. Cameron's policy does not, however, go far enough.
For a start ESA is only open to those currently on benefits for an extended period. There is no support for someone wishing to escape the smothering embrace of an existing job. Neither does the scheme assist those with the Damoclean Sword of redundancy hanging over their heads. New businesses are the future. Encouraging people to take control of their own employment, their own livelihoods and ultimately their own destinies will yield better results for the economy than creating any number of new service sector jobs.
In 2006 you mooted a number of schemes to help boost new businesses. These included lowering rates for small and medium-size companies and creating a new venture capital clearing house to help provide business funding. Unfortunately these ideas have not yet come to fruition. Should you win the coming election it is essential that these policies become reality.
Perhaps it is also time to revamp the services provided by Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway. Whilst these services provide substantial information about starting a new business, the process can still seem an intimidating Gordian knot of complexity. I suspect that something as simple as a structured course in starting a small business would pay dividends. There is currently a business mentoring programme whereby experienced business people give support and advice to new companies. This is regrettably only open to those already trading at above £100,000 per annum. It excludes the start-ups most in need of help.
By greatly increasing the support given to Scotland's potential entrepreneurs I am confident that we can see an economic renaissance. We would see a boom as a new wave of innovative start-ups grow and begin to make their marks on the world stage. We would break the casino banking sector's stranglehold on us. We would be able to regulate them without the fear that their flitting abroad would bankrupt our treasury. We would be able to prevent them from giving themselves our taxes as bonuses and discourage this sort of financial disaster ever happening again.
The recession is an opportunity to wake up from our national dwam and make something of ourselves. Forget independence, let's just let Scotland flourish.
Yours sincerely
Gordon Lawrie
Gordon Lawrie is a member of a Scottish Review panel of former delegates of the Young UK and Ireland Programme – which also includes Kris Anderson, Anthony Silkoff and Thom Sherrington. Each contributes a monthly article
