Scotland must drop its addiction to foreign investment

This isn’t just an issue of money. Companies that are mobile enough to invest in Scotland are mobile enough to remove that investment unless they get the political kickbacks they want (see the discussions around Scotland’s Green Freeports, for example. Or Grangemouth) and thus present a direct intervention against our democracy. They also tend to more weakly embed jobs and skills in the economy and are more willing to leave workers on the scrapheap if some other nation decides to attract their “investments” instead of us.

The Scottish Government should drop its addiction to FDI and should concentrate on building up domestic sources of investment (starting with reforms to the Scottish National Investment Bank) and should focus not on quick “GDP growth” and accelerations of shareholder profits but on sustainable development not just of companies but of their workforces and the wellbeing of the communities in which they live.

Dr Craig Dalzell, Head of Policy & Research, Common Weal, Glasgow.

READ MORE: Labour should follow Clement Attlee and spend big for growth

READ MORE: Someone has to tell the truth, Mr Sillars, about the cost of indy

Be proud of our record

THANKS to Ian McConnell for highlighting our country's business achievements when so much of the media seems determined to ignore them.

Instead of championing our successes they search out negatives. Time and again depressing headlines are made about NHS waiting lists, education standards, and housebuilding. Often they are wrong.

Sometimes, figures are related to England and Wales only, with no attempt made to compare them with Scotland, which are often better by the way, leaving Scots readers/viewers confused. But as Mark Twain popularised: "There are lies, damned lies and statistics."

You have to read to the end of a report to discover the headline doesn't actually tell the full story. And broadcasters often don't even bother going that far.

We should be proud of our record in Scotland despite facing persistent obstacles from Westminster.

To cover many of the shortages in the NHS, the care service, construction, agriculture and tourism industries, Scotland needs refugees and asylum seekers. The Tories were determined to deny us that, with hugely expensive nonsensical schemes like Rwanda.

Labour's already rightly ruled that out but how much further will it go in welcoming people to this country fleeing violence, war and persecution?

Andy Stenton, Glasgow.

Nationalise the National Grid

WITHOUT repeating all the reasons, such as better public services and lower council tax bills and so on than in the rest of the UK, higher income tax in Scotland has resulted in a higher standard of living, but only half of that enjoyed by our independent neighbours in Ireland and Scandinavia. Also, the latest National Records of Scotland figures show that 12,500 more people moved to Scotland from the rest of the UK than left in the most recent year, and this migration was across all tax bands.

The main problem for businesses is the lack of skilled workers, which will hamper ambitious house building plans or growing the economy, a situation exacerbated by Brexit which the new UK Government supports, yet has u-turned on a dedicated Scottish visa scheme.

In another success story for the Scottish Government's overseas offices, Scotland’s increased foreign direct investment in 2023 was double that the rest of the UK with an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year, yet the new Labour Government wants to pass control of these offices to the Secretary of State to further undermine Holyrood’s powers.

Scotland is a net exporter of energy, and this week the CEO of Octopus Energy claimed that we could experience periods of free electricity if Ofgem modified its regulations to better utilise renewable energy. If the Labour Government was serious about fuel poverty it would nationalise the privately-run National Grid that has failed to invest in proper infrastructure and has hindered Scotland’s vast cheap renewable energy potential. Labour’s much-heralded GB energy is just another PFI scheme and the omens aren’t good when Ian Murray refused to say that Labour wouldn’t impose expensive nuclear power stations on Scotland against the wishes of our Scottish Parliament.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

It's time to be patient

THE abandonment of the Scottish National Party, after some 17 years of failure, came as no surprise. It's only "success" is that of complete incompetence. It has proven itself as a political force incapable of running a country.

This time around, the SNP cannot cast blame on Westminster. This was, essentially, a Scottish election within the United Kingdom. The people have spoken, and have concluded that the SNP must be replaced.

However, although the SNP has failed again fear of its endurance persists. The call by Douglas Chapman for grassroots reform, while not unexpected, is worrying ("Former SNP MP breaks ranks to call for leadership change", The Herald, July 10). The replacement of John Swinney, a representative of the "old" SNP, by Kate Forbes, a slightly kinder and softer face, does not bring to an end the party's focus on its raison d'etre: independence.

If the "new" SNP is to reflect genuine reform and change, then it should acknowledge first that the pursuit of independence, at almost any cost, was an old and failed cause that brought no substantial benefits to the Scottish people. The SNP must ask itself: after 17 years in power, is Scotland a stronger and more flourishing country today than it was when the party came to power under Alex Salmond?

If Scottish Labour succeeds over the next two years in bringing in much-needed reform and positive change that can be seen and felt, then the SNP's prospects should be equally dire in 2026.

It is necessary that the Scottish electorate retain its grip on its anger. This is also the time to be patient, to give Scottish Labour the chance to begin those essential social and economic repairs that the previous government pushed aside. There is some hope that the next few years will shine a little brighter that they have of late.

Albert Halliday, Newton Mearns.

Douglas Chapman has called for grassroots reform of the SNP (Image: Getty)

Up to the old freebie tricks

THE SNP Government is giving free bus travel to asylum seekers ("Government to implement new asylum seekers’ bus travel pilot", The Herald, July 11). I would say this is a precursor to giving them the vote. As the SNP has demonstrated through the years it’s the old policy of give them a freebie and they’ll vote for us. And who picks up the cost of this latest freebie? The taxpayer of course.

Ian Balloch, Grangemouth.

Disappointed in the analysis

“HE would say that wouldn’t he?” is the commonly-extended version of Mandy Rice Davies’s reply when it was put to her in the witness box that Lord Astor had denied the allegations made against him during the Profumo Scandal.

It is a quote that has come to me often in the days since last Thursday’s General Election as defeated candidates, ex-politicians, columnists and letter writers queue up to give us only slightly amended versions of what they’ve been banging on about even before the election was called and the campaign began. The common theme seems to be “See, I was right all along. You should listen to me in future.”

Given that it was considered by many to be the most tedious campaign in living memory you might have thought that we would be treated to some genuine analysis of issues such as the low turnout, the effect of the ID requirements on this and, perhaps, some of the more unexpected results thrown up. However we are largely still waiting for anything as cerebral as this.

Frankly, when Count Binface begins to sound like the most perceptive political commentator around we should know we’ve got a problem.

Robin Irvine, Helensburgh.