Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 02 December 2020
I welcome the support of both of Scotland’s Governments. I will come on to the failures of the Scottish Government shortly, but I will first continue with the menu of working together.
A co-operative model has already been established with the announcement of a joint working group to consider the future of the BiFab site, as well as to boost the renewables supply chain in general in Scotland. The co-operative model must become the standard because, ultimately, it offers the best chance to create and save jobs. Saving jobs is the immediate priority, even as we look to create new low-carbon jobs in the years ahead.
The UK Government has launched a truly massive rescue effort. Nearly a million Scottish jobs have already been saved, and the UK Government’s furlough scheme will now run until next year to ensure that those jobs stay protected.
Any co-operative model requires both sides to play a role, so it is time for the SNP to step up and produce a coherent industrial strategy—one that sets out clearly how the Scottish Government will create future green jobs and how old industries such as oil and gas will be transitioned to a net zero future.
The approach from the Scottish Government thus far has clearly not produced enough positive results. Alex Salmond promised that 28,000 jobs would be created by 2020, but fewer than 2,000 have been created, despite Scotland seeing an unheralded expansion of renewables. I believe that 28,000 jobs may have been created—it is just that they have not been created in Scotland as the SNP promised that they would be.
The same pattern is repeated over and over: promises are made and SNP politicians smile for the cameras, and then they disavow responsibility when it falls apart. Examples include the SNP’s £100 million green jobs fund, which was a big announcement with zero detail; the not-for-profit energy company that was announced in 2017 with hundreds of thousands of pounds splurged on consultants, but which was not even mentioned in the latest programme for government; and the green ferries fiasco from the disgraced Derek Mackay, the results of which have been cost overruns that have climbed past £100 million and years of delay.
BiFab is the most recent sad example of the lack of a serious industrial strategy risking jobs. The SNP’s clumsy handling of the matter has meant that workers face an uncertain future, the public looks set to lose more than £52 million and our green recovery takes a needless blow.
There is no shame in not having all the answers, but I urge the SNP to try something different: work with our UK Government partners to ensure that Scotland builds back better.
16:08