Scotland in double dip recession, indy stalled, SNP Government paralysed, no public sector reform started, and George Laird right again!

Dear All

And here is the news, Scotland is in recession.

And the bad news is things are going to get worse.

When the cuts really start to bite, we will see many jobs in the public sector not being filled.

Departments will shrink and service will suffer.

The construction industry in Scotland has been hit particularly badly; property is too expensive due to the housing bubble.

Houses are over priced by about 40% of what many see as their true value.

Wages haven’t kept pace.

The fall in GDP is going to go further down, we see for the second successive quarter Scotland follows the UK economy into double-dip recession.

Did I say many many moons ago that Britain was going to go into double dip recession?

Yes, I did.

George Laird was right again.

The UK officially returned to recession in April, when first-quarter GDP fell 0.2%, the slide has started for many reasons, banking and debt are chiefly to blame, but you could throw in the failure of government both nationally and locally to reform.

Unsurprisingly, there are no genuine ideas floating around Scotland politically to solve the big problems, no political will at all.

Scotland as a country is paralysed.

The Federation of Small Businesses said it is unsurprising that Scotland has re-entered recession, it was always going to happen.

Andy Willox, policy convener, said:

“We can take some comfort from the fact that Scotland’s economic contraction looks smaller than the rest of the UK. However, we still need every part of government to shelve the distractions and focus on growth. Holyrood and local government can play their part by focusing enterprise support on building the business base and on expanding the private sector job market.”

Mr. Wilcox's wish will not come true, radical reform is needed, we are talking major projects that require full time attention at Holyrood and council level and everyone is off chasing or opposing independence.

Holyrood 2011 to 2016 will probably go do in history as one of the worst periods of devolved government in history.

Alex Salmond's problems just got bigger and he better start finding solutions.

Independence should be abandoned and public sector reform started immediately.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University