Meeting of the Parliament 27 February 2025
I simply disagree with Lorna Slater on that last point, but I agree that, where there is the capacity to move goods by rail, we should take that opportunity. Many companies, Tesco being one of them—we often see its goods moving by rail—use that facility. However, for products that are produced in places that are not close to a railhead, such as the products of the Scotch whisky industry, that would burden industries with substantial additional costs. Rail is not a panacea, but the general point is fairly made.
While we are talking about rail, let me say that we still have a substandard service. I have raised the service and connectivity that my constituents in Fife get between Fife and Edinburgh in the chamber so many times. The situation is holding back economic progress. As we are talking about whisky, let me also mention ferries. When the cross-party group on Scotch whisky visited Islay the summer before last, we heard that the biggest brake on the expansion of the whisky industry on that island—which is already seeing substantial additional investment and new facilities being formed—is the reliability of the ferry service. That is the biggest concern there and, again, something that is entirely in the Scottish Government’s gift.
Connectivity is not just about transport. We were promised that every address in Scotland would be connected to superfast broadband by 2021. That is another promise that has been broken.