SNP posturing in a post-Brexit world

THE SNP is generating lots of heat and noise in the post-Brexit world in which we find ourselves, but the key question is about how much it is actually achieving.

Nicola Sturgeon’s shuttle diplomacy to Europe is manna for TV camera crews who crave moving pictures. So Tuesday’s visit to Berlin looked the part – but stands little proper scrutiny. She met a low-ranking member of the German government who then issued a statement making it clear all questions around EU membership are a matter for the UK Government.

To add insult to injury, it is the taxpayer who foots the bills for Miss Sturgeon’s futile jaunts to the continent.

Meanwhile back in Scotland, a key part of SNP policy on easing businesses through the shocks that Brexit will undoubtedly bring looks suspiciously like a project scrapped less than a year ago.

As ever with the image-obsessed SNP, there was much fanfare about the launch of a ‘business information service’ to give firms a single point of contact with government. Yet it was the same SNP that shut down the similar Scottish Business Portal. The great new initiative suddenly looks like a limp retread of an unloved flop.

The Scottish Retail Consortium has a much more substantial suggestion for how the economy can be protected and expanded as we move away from the grip of Brussels. It is calling for a ‘bold and ambitious’ budget to slash taxes to provide a shot in the arm for the country’s finances.

In particular it wants an end to the £62.4million large business rate surcharge, a shameless bid to soak supposedly substantial firms. In fact, this charge hurts many very modest companies.

On past form, the SRC’s pleas will fall on deaf ears. The SNP just doesn’t get business and fails to grasp that small and medium-sized companies are the lifeblood of the economy. It thinks companies are all ‘big business’ and exist only as a dripping roast to raid for cash at every opportunity.

The country is crying out for bold and positive initiatives from Holyrood. Expensive excursions to meet disinterested European minnows and rehashed ideas are simply not good enough.