JAMIE STONE: Good jobs for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is my wish for new year

Jamie's Journal by Jamie Stone

To know me, you need to know that I'm a child of my generation. When I left school, when I left further education, there were good local jobs to be had.

I worked at Kishorn building the mighty Ninian Central platform, I worked at Nigg building Conoco's cutting-edge TLP floating platform. If you were able and willing, work was there. And it was well paid too.

I was fortunate enough to start my working career when the North Sea oil boom came roaring in to Easter Ross. They were good times.

Caithness folk, some of an older age and some younger so, will know that the same was absolutely true of Dounreay. Nuclear power in Caithness and oil fabrication in Easter Ross led to several generations staying in their beloved home communities and bringing up young families there. That, too, was a good time for Caithness.

So what do I hope for the year ahead? Obviously, I hope for a period of stability. In politics, the year behind us has been one of endless chaos – and no matter what your party political position, I think that all of us would agree that uncertainty coupled with the fear and upheaval of the Covid pandemic has been unsettling for all of us. We long for calm.

That of course applies to the whole nation – but on the local front, I dearly hope that the certainties of work in the pasts of Caithness and Easter Ross can be replicated in the future.

That is why I will rejoice the day the diggers first go to work to construct the Sutherland space launch site. That is why I will open a bottle and pour myself a large one if we get the Green Freeport status for the Cromarty Firth.

In my father's time, a long time ago now, depopulation was the curse of the Highlands. That is why, for instance, so many of us have cousins in places like Canada or Australia. They emigrated because they had no choice. There was no future for them here.

I am very clear that local, good quality employment can and should be every much a blessing for future generations as it was for mine.

As I opened the first page of my 2023 calendar, these were my thoughts. I am a child of my generation. My generation shaped me. And I hope to use what influence I have to return the gift for those whose working lives lie ahead of them.

* Jamie Stone is the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

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