Great to see Alex recognised for gifts
I was delighted last week to attend an event at the Smith Art Gallery and Museum to award the Fellowship of The Smith to Alex Neish who originally hails from Kennet in Clackmannanshire.
The honour was conferred on Alex in recognition of his generous gift of his renowned collection of British pewter to the Smith. There is no doubt that this fantastic collection has been a wonderful asset to the Smith and I am delighted that Alex has been recognised for his valued contribution to local culture.
Last week the Scottish Government launched a consultation on the Concessionary Bus Travel Scheme. The consultation aims to gather views on what people would like to change about the scheme as well as what they would like to see remain. The Scottish Government is committed to providing free bus travel to older and disabled people, and I would like to make it clear that those who currently have a free bus pass will not lose it.
The consultation will look at whether eligibility for a bus pass should be increased towards the state pension age, either at once or gradually over time and also whether the scheme should be extended to young modern apprentices. I would encourage as many local people as possible to get involved in this consultation to help inform the decision on whether any changes need to be made to the scheme at this time.
At the beginning of July, the Tories were wringing their hands with glee at the prospect of Scotland “teetering on the edge of recession”, with calls for “immediate action to stimulate growth”. They were almost disappointed when figures were released which showed that Scotland’s economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 - four times the UK growth rate for the same quarter - but instead of welcoming the news and calling on urgent action from the UK Government to improve the overall UK picture, they chose to continue their stock trade of talking Scotland down.
Instead of continually downplaying Scotland’s achievements, it would be great to hear them talking Scotland up for a change. And there is indeed much to talk about - Scotland’s economy is strong, diverse and has proved itself to be resilient in the face of the most challenging global conditions.
Since 2007 the number of registered businesses in Scotland has grown by 15 per cent rising to an alltime record level and between 2007 and 2015 and the value of Scotland’s international exports has increased by 41 per cent.
Our tourism industry is booming with more than 2.7 million visits from around the world last year. Our youth unemployment rate is second lowest in the whole of the EU and there are now more people in employment in Scotland than before the 2008 recession.
Scotland’s hospital A&E performance has been the best in the UK for the last 27 months of published data.
On top of this, we continue to make progress with our infrastructure projects. The new M8 officially opened. The upgrade means - for the first time - Scotland’s two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, are linked by continuous motorway, the dualling of the A9 advances and this week we will officially open Scotland’s largest infrastructure project in a generation - the Queensferry Crossing – delivered well under budget. As I said – there is much to talk about!