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'Scotland the speedboat' has a huge advantage in today's world


By Rob Gibson

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Rob Gibson MSP with Subsea 7’s Willie Watt (left) at the Scottish Parliament last week.
Rob Gibson MSP with Subsea 7’s Willie Watt (left) at the Scottish Parliament last week.

IT was my pleasure to host Willie Watt, general manager at Subsea 7 and chairman of Wick Harbour Authority, as my guest at the seventh annual Business in the Parliament gathering last Friday in Holyrood.

Business folk, MSPs, civil servants, academics and utility leaders share ideas and map the way forward for Scotland, which key speaker Sir Tom Hunter described as "our great nation".

We certainly know that around the Pentland and Moray firths we can look to an assured future from clean energy.

Willie and other local engineering bosses won many awards for innovation in shared apprenticeships and good practice. So we enjoyed, all the more, the keynote speech by Sir Tom, Scotland’s second richest man and a highly successful sports retail developer who started from humble beginnings in Ayrshire.

Sir Tom became the third leading Scottish entrepreneur in as many weeks to call for significantly more fiscal powers for the Scottish Parliament.

He said: "We in Scotland need fiscal responsibility — quite simply, we need to be responsible for what we raise in tax and what we spend in tax."

Sir Tom also vindicated the SNP Government’s campaign for an immediate release of capital funding to support shovel-ready projects, emphasising the huge importance capital investment plays in economic recovery.

"We need to drive stimulus into our economy — not squeeze it out of it," he said.

As a Scottish business leader and philanthropist, Sir Tom has argued against a rushed referendum on Scotland’s constitutional future. Instead, we need a positive debate and he condemns the scaremongering of the anti-independence parties.

Ultimately, our politicians create the framework within which we can all succeed or else aspire only to mediocrity.

The independence debate will come down to which vision of Scotland’s future inspires and enthuses people the most.

In the Holyrood chamber last Friday Sir Tom made it plain why Scotland has a huge advantage in this modern world.

"We’re a speedboat," he said, "against the large super tankers that are America, India and China. We can run rings round them if we have the drive and determination to do so."

TALKING of speedboats, I’m looking forward to this weekend in Wick at HarbourFest. I’m so glad Councillor Gail Ross galvanised a relaunch of the series built on the successful 2009 event.

To see an array of sailing boats large and small recalls days of the herring fleets which my colleague, Annabelle Ewing, recalled in the Common Fisheries Policy debate, also last week.

Her mum, Winnie, was based at Lossiemouth as MP and MEP for the Highlands and Islands in the 1970s.

Annabelle fondly recalled walking from boat to boat across the harbour in her youth.

I thought to myself at that instant that health and safety rules would stop young and old alike jumping from boat to boat. However, the advent of pontoons and the marina in Wick, and many other harbours, ushers in a whole new trade on the old raiding and trading sea routes from Scandinavia. I wish the Wick HarbourFest well.

Not that fishing is by any means an industry of the past. Wick, Scrabster and Lybster all have a stake in a prosperous and plentiful fish trade.

In my speech on the CFP I mentioned the new round of discussions which will have a vital impact on Scotland’s food production and its fisheries industry, which stretches around all our coasts.

It is the first time the European Parliament has had co-decision powers along with the council. So the UK Government has to represent our needs as Scotland for we have more than 70 per cent of the British catch.

In the EU policy developments we see widespread demand from many nations for more regionalisation of controls.

I reminded Richard Lochhead that we need care with framing our own control regulations, for example, when sampling and weighing at sea, to keep up the quality and consistency of measurement, and, indeed, in direct trade with other member states. This is an international industry and we need to set regulations that do not penalise particular boats or ports. I am looking for means to ensure that happens.

I concluded my remarks by quoting the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, alongside WWF Scotland, the Scottish Government and the parliament which all take the view that decentralisation and regionalisation are central to future prosperity.

We are speaking as one at present. Let us keep it that way.

LAST Friday it was announced the UK Government would provide an extra £32 million for super-fast broadband in Scotland. Our Scottish cabinet secretary for infrastructure and capital investment, Alex Neil, said the funding was a significant boost, adding that the UK Government has finally recognised our call to receive a fairer share of funding.

Earlier this year, our cabinet secretary met with UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and pressed him to look again at broadband funding to enable it to boost the significant investment already being made by the Scottish Government.

Mr Neil, who made an incisive contribution on Question Time from Inverness last Thursday, is looking forward to receiving further information on this announcement and working to make sure that Scottish communities can get the most out of this fund.

Mr Watt identified high-speed broadband as the key driver for successful high-tech business in Caithness. Subsea 7 and most other businesses would agree. I’m glad the UK Government has gone a small way to help.

www.robgibson.org


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