Never in our history have we seen such an economic shock as we have seen since the onset of the Covid pandemic.
I am certain that we have not yet seen the full effect of the unemployment and hardship that will be caused by the impacts of the pandemic and the measures taken to tackle it.
What is also very clear is that those impacts are extremely unequal, with the young having their prospects most severely impaired and those working in the private sector suffering the most severe economic consequences, yet to be felt in full, while the elderly and those with underlying health issues bearing the most risk to life, which has been tragic.
Many people working in the ‘front line’ have worked heroically. Of course, this includes those in the health service who have had to battle to save lives, but it also includes those who kept the boilers running, the ambulances and delivery vehicles on the road and the PPE arriving where required.
It includes those in supply chains up and down the country – drivers, engineers, and tradesmen keeping our homes and critical facilities operational. It also includes those who have produced our food and those who distributed it and indeed those who kept the wheels and machinery of production and distribution of life’s essentials turning.
Everyone has suffered the social deprivations and mental health challenges of lockdown. However, great many of our population – whether wealthy, retired or working in the public sector or government, local or national – have neither had their economic situation nor their future employment prospects impaired, which is a blessing for them. Those fortunate enough to be working in secure public sector employment or retired, perhaps on a secured pension, do not have the financial concerns of those in the private sector whose jobs and livelihoods depend on viable economic activity.
Supporting sustainable jobs is critical
This imbalance of the bearing of the economic consequences of the pandemic is not given coverage or widely recognised, though our politicians at a national and local level are actively involved in formulating policy, actions, and funding programmes to sustain the economy and build back greener, better, and more fairly. Never has it been more critical for government at all levels, locally and nationally, to do everything possible to create and support sustainable jobs across our nation.
We all have an obligation to recognise and understand this fundamental fact and do what we can to support economic growth and sustain people in jobs, as well as create new ones. The lack of a job and the want of it is one of the most fundamentally damaging situations to long-term prospects an individual, their family and therefore society at large can suffer from.
It seems that we are prepared to tolerate someone dying from hunger and homelessness and the lack of a job, but not prepared to tolerate ‘our’ view or environment being altered
If we are to sustain ourselves as a society, economic growth and development must be front and centre of government policy and action at national and local level. There needs to be some maturity in decision making and joined-up thinking in policy and action. You simply cannot have development without some impact, but neither can you have social progression without economic development.
How can we call for building back our economy and protecting jobs, yet fail to support compliant, job-creating planning applications? For example, the recent decision to refuse planning for an organic sea farm in Skye, which was recommended for approval, was in my view a dereliction of responsibility. It was to create nine new jobs directly. However, just the cancelling of the equipment orders required by this development and to be built here in the Highlands by my company, Gael Force Group, has caused the immediate redundancy of more than 20 people, just in one company alone. This is a shocking narrowness in consideration and a failure of process.
Highlands and Islands crisis must be addressed
We have become anti-development and anti-business in this country, yet we want all the benefits that depend on a strong, successful, and growing economy. It seems that we are prepared to tolerate someone dying from hunger and homelessness and the lack of a job, but not prepared to tolerate ‘our’ view or environment being altered.
In the opinion of some people, all other forms of nature now have precedence over their fellow human beings. Like the Clearances, once again the welfare of the local people who work the land and the sea is being considered as secondary to the narrow interests of a minority, often not rooted in the area, who care not for the economic wellbeing of other local people. We need to put people, their livelihoods, and their wellbeing first.
The depressing familiarity of narrow interest groups’ objections to developments – often by an outspoken minority – is reaching a crisis across the Highlands and Islands and needs to be addressed. It requires local and national political leadership to speak out and stand up for the greater good, and retake the economic development agenda that has made the rural Highlands and Islands such a turnaround success over the past 30 to 40 years.
If we do not see a change of behaviour in the support of development and growing the economy by all of us, we will be a failing nation, with rural areas becoming very largely inactive economically; a playground for tourists, who are very welcome but who come and who go. A place where the will of the few suppress the opportunity of the many.
If we do not change direction, we will leave no fine place in rural Scotland to raise a young family as our legacy. Shame on us.
Stewart Graham is the founder and managing director of Gael Force Group Ltd
