North has ability to lead Scotland into the future
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YOU have to laugh, imagine London journalists calling Scotland "Skintland".
Well, thanks to The Economist, a magazine that takes itself so seriously, they have conveniently forgotten their cheer-leading role in the headlong rush of speculation by the City of London casino bankers; the very bankers that nearly busted Britain with their wanton greed in 2008.
Lots of comments have been made about last week’s issue of The Economist’s cover depicting a jokey map of twisted Scottish place names. Thursty — for Thurso — and John No Groats for — John O’Groats — are just two local twists. They went out of their way to demean our country and our cherished home places.
Good undergraduate fun but it tells you they think they know best and we should get back in our box.
How dare we suggest Scots can avoid the mistakes that our London masters make time after time.
Yet again, London chatterers take pot shots at Scotland.
However, for the few people who have seen images of the front cover, if you read inside the put-down for Scotland’s future as an independent country, you realise that this negativity and blinkered world view is far from a safe predictor for our northern European nation.
We are happy to look north, south, east and west and see many peoples in similar-sized nations taking their seat at the United Nations with far fewer prospects than we have.
WE have the abilities in the North to lead Scotland to a brighter future. I introduced the Caithness Chamber of Commerce Innovation Challenge at the Engineering, Technology, and Energy Centre event to mark Babcock’s entry into the Far North as a big economic player.
It signalled, along with Babcock’s sponsorship of a couple of dozen new high-tech apprenticeship places in North Highland College, new job choices.
The Caithness Chamber of Commerce’s Innovation Challenge is offering mentoring support, office space and access to funding for the prizewinners.
The chamber will also work with the winners, and I suspect many of the competitors, to point them in the direction of the most appropriate support for their business idea. Having that expertise on tap will be invaluable.
The North of Scotland has an upcoming generation of future engineers and manufacturers who will be able to take advantage of the opportunities in green technology that new infrastructure such as the Scrabster harbour is going to harness in the area.
There is good evidence that local young people have a keen interest and ability in technology as growing numbers present and gain qualifications in craft and design, technological studies and graphic communications at Wick and Thurso high schools.
At Farr High in Bettyhill the school is placed among the top quarter of student success in Scotland for technology subjects and has particularly good results in product design.
North Highland College has been successful in securing an EU grant of £1.5 million over three years to support youth unemployment and ensure our students have access to work placements and are employment ready.
Although this is a difficult time for our home-grown businesses, we are in a period of acute technological advance, particularly in the renewable energy industry.
The private sector is being supported in its efforts to harness the abundance of energy resource such as the Pentland Firth that our First Minister dubbed the Saudi Arabia of marine energy. And that was before the world economic crash in 2008.
In 2012 initiatives such as the Scottish Government’s £103m Renewable Energy Investment Fund, announced recently by energy minister Fergus Ewing, will provide the public support to spring open private investors’ coffers.
As well as supporting wave and tidal developers develop and deploy devices in the seas around our coast, the fund will focus on supporting rural businesses and communities develop their own renewable energy projects and £2m has been set aside by government to help community projects such as the community wind farm development at Lybster.
All in all an exciting antidote to the sceptics at home and abroad who oppose every real step forward while failing to offer any realistic options for sustaining our communities in an era of climate change.
The emergence of China, Brazil, India and Russia as economic powerhouses will need our response.
Full powers for Scotland to decide our economic path are vital to meet that challenge. They are the stuff of the real debate. We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
THE Highland Council will be re-elected on May 3. I’m proud of the Highland SNP manifesto.
You can read it online at Highlandsnp.org
It focuses on a strong voice for all across the Highlands saying that an SNP-led council will end the centralisation of the council’s business within one year, returning appropriate decision-making to local areas.
We will restructure the council’s strategic committees and management structures to improve decision-making, efficiency and reduce costs.
We will create the opportunity to increase the participation of young people in the council’s affairs.
That means saving money from unnecessary council travel of all the meetings being in Inverness. Caithness councillors will decide a budget in a local area committee. That’s a start to real local control.
The Labour and Tory parties and independent candidates don’t rate local control. The Highland Lib Dems have dismissed the SNP decentralisation plan to rebuild local committees with proper powers and budgets which communities demand.
In a Scotland getting more economic powers in Edinburgh, the SNP means business and seeks to rebuild local prosperity through local democracy. It’s a major prize for voters on May 3.
www.robgibson.org
