It was a tale of somewhat contrasting emotions last week when it came to my two column topics for The Herald.
The first topic was the success of the Isle of Harris Distillery, as it prepares for the launch next month of its single malt Scotch whisky, The Hearach.
It has been an inspiring tale.
And it is a story I have covered for more than a decade, all the way back to the fundraising drive.
Simon Erlanger, managing director of Isle of Harris Distillers, has been involved with the project all this time.
He has from the outset emphasised the community aspect of the distillery at Tarbert on Harris and crucially the employment it would create for local people.
The distillery now employs 45 local people. This is double the number of jobs that Isle of Harris Distillers said it would create.
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And one-third of the 45-strong workforce is under 30, Isle of Harris Distillers executive chairman Ron MacEachran noted when I caught up with him and Mr Erlanger this month as the duo prepare for The Hearach’s launch on September 22. The single malt will then go on sale on September 23.
The distillery expects next month to mark the milestone of bottling its one millionth bottle of its award-winning Isle of Harris gin, which is no mean feat.
Having spent the early part of my career covering rural and island communities, as a reporter for The Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser, I am only too aware of the importance of creating jobs when it comes to giving young people in particular the option of not moving away.
Of course, many people move away to study or work and then return, so employment opportunities are also vital in this context.
No one wants to see further depopulation of Scotland’s islands.
Therefore, as well as being inspirational, the Isle of Harris Distillers tale has been uplifting. And its success, and part in attracting visitors to Harris, will hopefully continue to have a major beneficial effect for other businesses on the island which themselves have much to offer.
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Economic development agency Scottish Enterprise deserves credit for its faith in the project. At many points in the early stages of the fundraising, achievement of the total required for the building of the distillery looked like a tall order. That said, it never looked impossible, especially given the drive and passion of those involved.
Moving on from my first to second column of the week, the subject matter went from this inspiring and uplifting tale to a matter which evoked a feeling of exasperation.
This feeling came, not for the first time, courtesy of the Conservative Brexiters.
There was also some weariness in once again having to listen to the post-Brexit propaganda on trade deals.
Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch was quoted last week by the Daily Express as follows in the context of the India trade deal and the impact of Brexit: “Those voices of doom have been proved decisively wrong. Far from turning their backs on the UK, companies are queuing up to invest here. The UK is on the up and remains a country others want to deal with. Global Britain is here and it’s thriving.”
Once again, the big noise from the Brexiters is entirely at odds with reality, as the numbers show. It seems, however, that many people are not interested in the numbers. Rather, they are quite taken by all of the empty rhetoric.
However, the figures are, quite simply, what matter here.
In January 2022, the then Department for International Trade said: “A UK-India FTA is estimated to increase UK GDP (gross domestic product) by the equivalent of around £3.3 billion to around £6.2 billion, depending on the depth of the agreement, when compared to projections of UK GDP in 2035 levels.
“This is equivalent to an increase in UK GDP of between 0.12% and 0.22% in the long run.”
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Forecasts drawn up by Theresa May’s government in 2018 showed Brexit would, with an average free trade deal with the European Union, result in UK GDP in 15 years’ time being 4.9% lower than if the country had stayed in the bloc if there were no change to migration arrangements. Or 6.7% worse on the basis of zero net inflow of workers from European Economic Area countries.
Office for Budget Responsibility chairman Richard Hughes, when asked in March by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg about how much stronger the UK economy would be had the country stayed in the EU, replied: “We think that in the long run it reduces our overall output by around 4% compared with had we remained in the EU.”
Ms Badenoch should reflect on these figures. It is a simple enough comparison. The Brexit damage is enormous. The benefits of an India trade deal are tiny. Hence the exasperation when the Conservative Brexiters proclaim their folly has been a success and people lap this up in large numbers.
The other thing which sprang to mind about the two column topics was that the first has been about building something positive and successful, from an inspired idea, while the second has been about damage and destruction from what many would consider to be toxic ideology.
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