The Scottish Government

Finance and Sustainable Growth Secretary John Swinney

Friday, November 30, 2007

For too long Scotland's economy has underperformed. Not only does our historically low growth rate compare poorly with the UK, but we are left standing by successful small independent countries like Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

For too long politicians have sat complacently while young bright and mobile Scots have left this country to seek better opportunities elsewhere. The world is full of successful Scots. We want to create the opportunities to enable our talented people to build a successful Scotland.

Ours is a government of ambition. That is why we are determined to match or exceed the UK's growth rate by 2011. We will create the conditions for successful business and through them make Scotland wealthier. And we want to see more Scots sharing in that wealth.

We want Scots to benefit from the learning process on a lifelong basis - we want people to go to university or college to improve their chances of a good job, or to improve their performance in the job they are in and so to contribute ever more to the economic growth of our nation.

We can make a good start with the powers currently available to the parliament. With greater powers we could do so much more - more to attract and retain business activity, for example, and ensure that the additional wealth they create helps to fund the front-line services we need to make our country more productive, more competitive, and just.

With over 1,500 responses in two weeks I am delighted at the overwhelming response to the national conversation. I welcome the debate it has generated across all sectors of Scottish society on ways to make our country more successful, wealthier and fairer.

This blog is now closed to further comments.

Comments

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• 1. tommy scouller - isle of scalpay

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 14:56

  I can't understand those who can't see why scotland needs independence england has been bleeding us dry for years they've took our railway industry,our steel industry our oil and gas etc 6.ooo square miles of scottish coastal waters it's time we stood up to them and stopped listening to unionist lies
  

• 2. PAUL - down south

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 15:34

  We left about 25 years ago but aim to come home soon. We left because of much better opportunities and rates in London. Secondary issues were the apparent lack of national self-confidence post-referendum and the ongoing, embedded dourness and bigotry.
  
  I see progress in recent years but we need a step-change in attitudes and drive. Confronting sectarianism at every level is a sound start.
  
  Stop fighting and blaming others at individual and national level, grow up and take responsibility for our future. We have so much to build on if the mindset is right.

• 3. Clashrock - Edinburgh

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 15:36

  Provide more money for students. removing the graduate endowment wasn't enough. and plough more money into widening participation!

• 4. Susan Mitchell - Toronto, Canada

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 16:27

  I left Scotland in 1989 to come to Canada and would love to come home to Scotland but to an independent Scotland. The SNP always received my vote before leaving. I have met so many Scots on my travels who left Scotland to seek better opportunities and who are indeed very successful. Scotland should concentrate on keeping our talent in our country - make it a better place to live with econcomic growth. I have heard over and over again from Scots that they left to seek a better standard of living for their children and for more opportunities. If we stopped voting in a Labour government who take their instructions from Westminster and the scraps that Scotland receive then we might actually start to accomplish a better place to live. Scots need confidence in themselves; too many complain but won't make the move by voting for an independent government to start to rectify the problem. Also in Canada, no one cares what religion you are and everyone gets along just fine. I would agree that sectarianism is a problem mainly in the west coast of Scotland (I am from the East) so I didn't really experience it. I have heard over and over again that some areas in Scotland have the best new schools being built (one denomination seem to have preference and it is said depending on the local council who decide where the funding goes). In Canada, everyone has to complete a Tax Return every year and submit it to the government. On the form it asks each tax payer a question - where do you want your portion of your education taxes applied to "either public or Roman Catholic" - if you had children attending public school you would check off public and if Catholic you would check off Catholic. That way each person knows where there taxes are being applied and they are not going to where the local government dictates or prefers. I am not sure how that could be achieved in Scotland but I thought it was a good thing that someone cared to ask where I wanted my taxes to be applied.

• 5. spiderman - Argyll

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 16:30

  More power to your elbow! I have worked abroad many times but always came back home between and after. Improve national confidence, growth and opportunities and there's no limit to Scotland's future. Considering the massive inventive contributions made by Scots in the past, imagine the potential if we had control of our own economy, education, industrial growth etc. Go for it but please present independence in a non-isolationist, non-nationalist, inclusive light where we will become a friendly partner of other nations with England amongst our best friends and allies.

• 6. James Murray - Balintore

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 16:42

  The Unionist parties will never accept that the people of Scotland have spoken, albeit in a modest way at the moment, but I am confident that a government, free of East Lothian situations will convince the electorate we are on the way to deciding our own future in Scotland.
  We have quite a battle on our hands competing against a hostile Unionist press and a biased B.B.C.
  Let,s ensure the "ma faither voted labour"brigade will come to their senses and realise Scotland has been sold short for 300 years. Publicise the information released in the 30 year rule which received scant notice in the press.

• 7. Susan Mitchell - Toronto, Canada

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 16:42

  Another reason I left Scotland, was my frustration at labour being voted in again and again. Before I left, I had to pay Maggie Thatchers poll tax (let's try it out on the Scots first!!!) and our politicians could do nothing to stop her. We allowed it to happen because we didn't vote SNP - we should have been independent years ago - but the Scots kept voting in a
  labour government who dictated to them what Westminster decided even if it was Conservative and not what Scotland wanted. Margaret Thatcher paid the Scots back by introducing the poll tax and I left mad and frustrated saying to myself - we get what we deserve because the people won't vote for an independent country.

• 8. Paul - Edinburgh

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 17:05

  PLEASE, can someone restyle this website from Scottish Executive to Scottish GOVERNMENT. And for those who say it's only syntax (along with "who cares what flag flies in Scotland".
  It is what these words/flags represent that is important!!!

• 9. paul holmes - fife

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 19:16

  In the future we will look back and wonder what all the fuss and shrill warnings was all about. Independence is the natural state for Scotland. It would give us the chance to flourish economically and culturally. It is the best way to address the problems in society.

• 10. Dave Coull - Balnabreich

  Thursday, August 30, 2007 20:40

  Susan Mitchell of Toronto, Canada (7) says "I had to pay Maggie Thatchers poll tax" - you did? She never managed to get a single penny out of me.
  
  "let's try it out on the Scots first!!!" - Susan, you say you emigrated in 1989. What I did was to RETURN to Scotland in 1988, quite deliberately, to NOT pay the poll tax, and to help to organise a campaign of mass non-payment.
  
  "We allowed it to happen" - not me, Susan. I was part of the active resistance.
  
  "we get what we deserve because the people won't vote for an independent country" - the people have never had the OPPORTUNITY to vote for an independent country. And don't tell me they can vote SNP, the SNP is a political party, not a single-issue campaign, and it has policies on everything from European Union, to whether Edinburgh should have trams or not, to building better roads (good for motorists in the short term, extremely bad for the planet in the medium term). People might agree with independence and yet not vote SNP because they profoundly disagree with some of the SNP's OTHER policies.
  
  Personally, it was only with the greatest reluctance, after a great deal of heart-searching, that I once brought myself to vote for John Swinney (yes, I am from his constituency) (and John, you are certainly NOT gauranteed to get my vote in the future).
  
  Opinion polls have suggested that around 40 percent of Labour voters back independence, over 30 percent of Liberal Democrat voters back independence, and around 25 percent of Conservative voters back independence. On the other hand, a minority of SNP voters actually want a Scottish government with Alex Salmond as First Minister, yet would stop short of actual independence. But neither opinion polls nor the results of party-political elections are enough. There is really only ONE way to establish the will of the people of Scotland regarding independence, and that is through a referendum.
  
  Forget "Vote SNP". Forget party politics. Opinion polls have suggested that a huge majority of Scots want a referendum on independence, REGARDLESS of how they would actually vote in that referendum. On _this_ question, since the majority is so huge, I think the opinion polls can be trusted. We, the people, want a referendum, and we want it NOW.

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