The Scottish Economy
One of the differences for me for this election campaign is that as well as fighting a local campaign, I’m involved in the national campaign for the Scottish Conservatives. This afternoon I took part in a debate as part of the Holyrood Conference on Economic Development.
It does strike me that in Scotland we get very wound up about how our economy is performing compared to England – and rightly so – but the real challenges for us over the next few decades will be to make sure we can compete with countries all over the world, not just the rest of Europe, or the US. If we don’t compete with the growing economies in Asia and Eastern Europe – amongst others – then we won’t be creating the jobs or spreading the wealth that we are capable of.
I’ve seen at close hand how the textile industry in the Borders has declined, and the impact that has had locally. The same goes for electronics, once the great hope to take over from textiles. I’m keen we get more jobs from the Financial Sector out of Edinburgh into the Borders and Midlothian, but let’s not kid ourselves that these jobs can’t go to other countries too. Whatever the future holds for Scotland, competition is only going to get more intense, and we’d better get used to it.
