Meeting of the Parliament 08 September 2015
I will touch on a couple of topics from earlier speeches that need to be addressed.
I thought that we had—Patrick Harvie excluded; I know that his view is different view from mine—come to a degree of consensus on the benefits that reductions in air passenger duty would provide for airports and economic activity in Scotland. I also thought that the Labour Party was signed up to that, but from Jackie Baillie’s speech, I heard what seemed to be a rowing back from the Labour front bench and a suggestion that Labour does not favour taking those steps to boost economic activity and support Scotland’s airports. That will be interesting news for Scotland’s airports—in particular, Aberdeen airport in my constituency, at which a number of routes would potentially benefit significantly were the decision to be taken to reduce air passenger duty. Perhaps Labour front-bench members will clarify that later on.
On the second point that Jackie Baillie spoke about, I realise that Labour faces a difficult balancing act in trying, on the one hand, to appear to be concerned by the situation that affects the oil and gas sector, while trying on the other hand not to act as though it is pleased by the situation that arises. That is a balancing act that the previous leader of Scottish Labour, Jim Murphy, spectacularly failed to carry off. However, the point is that the situation demonstrates the folly of the UK Government’s decision to implement the supplementary charge when the oil price was high, because that had a detrimental impact on exploration activity when the opportunity existed for that activity to take place. It meant that when the oil price lowered, the industry was not in as advantageous a position as it would have been had the exploration activity been stimulated and encouraged.
It would, during the period of the offshore Europe conference, which takes place in my constituency, be remiss of me not to focus on the positive developments and opportunities in the sector. I note that Lloyd’s Register Energy yesterday announced that it will develop a headquarters building in the Prime Four business park in Kingswells in my constituency. In its press release, it says that
“The complex will be the largest LR office worldwide in terms of headcount.”
That is an important statement of confidence in the north-east’s economy and in the energy sector.
I was also drawn to an article by Brian Wilson on the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce’s blog. It is not often that Brian Wilson is quoted by SNP members, but it was one of his more temperate interventions. He points out that
“Azerbaijan alone, according to UKTI, is offering £11 billion worth of export opportunities for British companies over the next few years, as production of both oil and gas continue to expand.”
One of the benefits that we have in Scotland—in the north-east in particular—is an expertise base that has been built up over many decades that can be exported to other countries in a way that is beneficial to those areas and which can bring benefits back to Scotland as a result of internationalisation and the export of talent, hardware and kit.
On the living wage, there is a fallacy in the position of Murdo Fraser and the Conservative Party. Retitling of the minimum wage as the living wage does not make it a living wage. What makes a wage a living wage is that it meets the standard that is applied. Any increase in wages is welcome, but because the Conservatives did not increase the minimum wage to the level of the living wage as applied by the Scottish Government, it cannot be called a living wage. A wage that does not meet the criteria of a living wage cannot be called a living wage.