Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2017
I do not have time. The minister will have time to respond in his speech.
The narrative of centralisation is fixed and unrelenting. A Convention of Scottish Local Authorities report in 2014 described Scotland as the
“most centralised country in Europe.”
It is no wonder that many of us believe that disbanding HIE’s board is simply the next chapter in that story, and that we will see another local body replaced by an all-Scotland organisation, based here under the watchful eyes of its political masters. Let me even hazard a guess at a name: enterprise Scotland? It is all so predictable.
With HIE, members should note the ultimate irony: a United Kingdom Government in faraway Westminster gave us the board, but a Scottish Government here in Edinburgh will take it away, and that at the hand of the Scottish National Party of all people—a party of devolution and autonomy. When it comes to localism, however, its instincts are anything but local.
Community empowerment cannot be preached while removing powers from local organisations. Communities in the peripheral areas of remote and rural Scotland are not helped by passing power in completely the opposite direction.
Some of the SNP’s Highlands and Islands MSPs are here. Memories are long in our part of the world and the people of the Highlands and Islands will remember how they vote tonight. There are basic questions that they must ask themselves. Either they believe that power is best exercised closest to the people that it affects or they do not; either they believe in local communities deciding for themselves what is in their best interests or they do not; and either they believe in allowing for diversity and divergence from central Government or they do not. What is it to be?
In tonight’s vote, we in this chamber have an opportunity to say enough is enough, to stand up for small communities and businesses across Scotland, to end the withdrawal of decision-making powers from our localities, to end the hoarding of power and influence in the centre and to end—once and for all—the passing of control over vast areas of Scottish life from the many to the few.
I move,
That the Parliament opposes the Scottish Government’s plans to abolish the board of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE); recognises the vital work that HIE carries out for businesses and communities across the Highlands and Islands, and calls on the Scottish Government to reverse this decision and ensure that the HIE board continues to take all strategic, operational and budgetary decisions.