Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
On Wednesday, when others were watching the Chancellor give his autumn statement, the Scottish Government snuck out the news they would be breaking a promise to protect Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
It was just two months ago the first minister said the agency was safe, but now we discover she was indulging in sophistry and the agency is to be eviscerated.
Last year, the HIE celebrated 50 years of economic progress in the Highlands and Islands. This week I am visiting the Isle of Skye, and the impact that it has had there is telling there and across the Highlands and Islands. The agency has helped oversee a population increase of more than 20%, and since its creation employment levels have risen while unemployment has fallen beneath the national average.
What has the first minister done to celebrate this success? She is tearing up that organisation and transporting strategic decision making to the central belt. The abolition of the HIE board will result in the Highlands and Islands losing control of their economic destiny. Instead we are going to see a super quango board run from the central belt.
The SNP Government may pretend it is protecting Highlands and Islands Enterprise by keeping the name but if they abolish the board the heart of the organisation will lie in the central belt not the Highlands and Islands.
This act lays bare this government’s centralisation agenda and dismissal of anything driven from outside the central belt. They scrapped local police, local fire, have stripped councils of power and are even exploring how to wrest control of education from councils. It is the arrogance of power and control that has gripped the SNP.
The founding chairman of the Highlands and Islands development board, Professor Robert Grieve, warned about the need for the agency to get the region on its feet and without that the country would not be whole. He warned it would be a “torn saltire”.
The first minister is tearing up that saltire with this act. The Highlands and Islands Enterprise must be saved and I support the Press and Journal in their campaign to stop the closure.