It’s nurture businesses need – not the endless squeeze of the SNP

EVERY day, people across Scotland embark on one of the biggest risks they will ever take in their professional – and indeed personal – lives, by becoming self-employed.

Some do it through choice, because they want to maximise their skills, become their own boss and see more of the fruits of their own labour.

Some are forced to take the leap following redundancy or for other reasons outwith their control.

Others simply calculate, for their own sake and that of their families, that setting up on their own is a risk worth taking, and that a new challenge could bring satisfaction and a much-needed change.

Whatever the reason, there is one common thread – all correctly believe they should have the support of the Scottish Government in doing so.

It is difficult to understand how hard it is to take the jump into self-employment unless you do it yourself – but ministers should be seeking to make that easier, not more difficult.

So it was with great disappointment that I read that there was been a huge reduction in the number of people identifying as self-employed north of the Border.

The Office for National Statistics report shows 7,000 fewer people in that position, a reduction of around 2 per cent. That will include everyone from plumbers and electricians, to start-up internet firms and full-time musicians.

These people are a key strand of our economy, not only generating huge amounts in taxation but filling important gaps in society, bringing relief and enjoyment to people that big companies cannot.

Aversion

If it were the case that these thousands of people had been snapped up on lucrative, permanent contracts everyone would be happy.

But the same round of official figures showed that cannot possibly be the case.

In fact, the number of people unemployed and looking for work increased by 5,000 in the last quarter, meaning there are now 120,000 job-seekers here who cannot find employment.

In contrast – and while noting that these statistics do fluctuate on a cross-Border basis – the number looking for a job in the UK as a whole dropped by 12,000.

The problem is not simply that the Scottish Government has a specific aversion to those who want to run their own business. It is that it is a Nationalist government which, since coming to power in 2007, has had no interest in supporting business of any size.

The over-arching reason for that is its obsession initially with the first independence referendum and, after it lost decisively, pushing for an ill-deserved re-run.

All those years spent trying to break up Britain could instead have been dedicated to helping start-ups and the already self-employed make a success of their enterprise.

Instead, it stoked division and ladled on the uncertainty, which meant no one could get on with anything.

All the devolved areas – from health and education to transport and infrastructure – suffered as a result. But it seems Scotland’s business community also paid a price, and one that is now being played out in this latest data.

Take taxation as a start. No one is safe when it comes to the SNP’s insatiable desire to keep more of people’s and businesses’ money. A fair and competitive tax regime would allow Scotland to flourish, encourage growth and bring more investment north of the Border. The SNP recognises this as a theory, because it wants to cut Air Passenger Duty on the basis it will bring in more visitors.

But for ideological and dogmatic reasons, it does not believe this for anything else, which is why Scotland is now the highest-taxed part of the UK. With those running their own businesses and becoming self-employed, it is no wonder many are going to the wall when taxation is so high.

The Scottish parliament has never had more controls in terms of running the economy, so the future for the selfemployed and the progressive policies upon which they depend should never have looked brighter. Instead, we have a stubborn SNP Government with an anti-business mentality at its core.

Of course, there will be a range of reasons why someone ceases to be self-employed, and it would be crass to simply say it is always the Government’s fault.

Some ventures simply do not work, while others perhaps are not suited to being their own boss, something they only discover after they try it. But there is no shortage of SNP-related gaffes to point to either.

In my area in the North East, many farmers and others in the rural sector would be defined as self-employed.

The ONS figures do not specify which sectors are worst hit, but we know the countryside has been badly affected by the Nationalists’ CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] payments fiasco.

Disastrous

Because of the Scottish Government’s inability to properly run an IT system to process payments (even though every other country seems to manage one effectively) rural communities were starved of hundreds of millions of pounds.

On the face of it, it was farmers who bore the brunt.

But of course, if their money dries up, so too, does the cash they use to purchase local services. The impact drips down right through the community and the consequences can be disastrous.

There is no lack of evidence about how shambolic the SNP has been in stewarding Scotland’s economy. Our productivity is among the worst in the developed world and considerably poorer than England’s. We were half-way to an official recession last year, and GDP is continually poor.

All of these things make life harder for the self-employed, regardless of the industry in which they operate.

But do not expect answers, explanations or apologies from the Nationalists any time soon. Their stock answer for everything is to point to Brexit, with no hint of irony that their own break-up plans would destroy the UK’s current single market.

It is not that they object to Brexit as such. It is just that they have made a political calculation that if they will Brexit to fail, and do as much as they can to ensure that happens, it will (in their eyes) bring the prospect of Scottish independence closer.

It is the motive that sits behind every single thing the party does.

Britain is four times more valuable for Scottish trade than the EU, yet the SNP still wants to jeopardise it for its own selfish political goals.

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union may be used as a credible excuse if Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland were all suffering. Instead, the failings of Scotland’s economy can be laid at the SNP’s door.

Why? Because Nicola Sturgeon would rather create her own, separatist political legacy than allow our self-made professionals to flourish.