Dear All
If someone was asked to choose between paying £400,000 for ‘digs’ for a few weeks or paying nothing, which would you choose?
I would choose the free digs.
And I would especially choose the free digs if it was other people’s money I was spending.
Alex Salmond went to London for the Olympics but his attempt to set up what was dubbed his London ‘embassy’ resulted in wasting a monumental sum of public money.
His vanity project, his folly, our cost!
You could say the funny thing about arriving late, having a lack of planning and vision was that not a single business deal has been signed.
The SNP Government's Scotland House project during the 2012 Olympic Games was a flop.
All £400,000, bad idea, misjudged and totally out of touch, when the UK Government had offered up Dover House, the Scotland Office in Whitehall, for free.
Who turns down free digs?
I am sure that the plush Army and Navy Club, near Buckingham Palace is a really nice place, but in times of austerity it was the wrong place.
The UK Government ran its own British Business Embassy at Lancaster House. The difference was that it hosted 14 business summits, attracting 3000 business leaders and policymakers from around the world.
What Alex Salmond should have done was piggyback on that event thereby creating a better platform for Scotland.
He would have gotten Scotland’s message across much better and to a wider base.
It all adds up to what I have been saying for sometime, a genuine lack of talent in the Scottish National Party, if the party wasn't run as a clique, Salmond could hear the alternative view and he needs someone to say no more often.
And to show how badly Alex Salmond did with the little ‘Scotlander’ approach, a spokeswoman for UK Trade and Investment said the Business Embassy had been a great success with a business deal clinched every day.
Alex Salmond and his team couldn’t even pull off one during their entire time.
The UK Government agency running the Lancaster House events expects the economic benefit of the 2012 Games to total £13 billion.
£13 billion and how much of that will be coming to Scotland?
Previously in the SNP I was criticised unjustly because I was said to be unable to work in a team, but the truth of the SNP is that, it is they who are incapable of working in a team environment unless it is to their own personal advantage.
When certain elements turned the SNP into the nasty little poisonous clique it has become, they would eventually implode through their bad judgment.
Chickens are coming home to roost for Salmond and Sturgeon.
With unrealistic expectations Alex Salmond set himself up to fall flat on his face when quipped how for the 17 days of the 2012 Games the club would become a "little bit of England that is forever Scotland".
Scotland House very quickly became known as the venue that was largely deserted for much of the day.
Ironically many of the visitors were said to be officials transported down from Scotland. When there is a lack of preparation disaster surely follows, but that s the modern SNP leave everything to the last minute, do it rushed and do it botched.
And where applicable pass the buck to someone else to do their job.
As an SNP member, I have on many occasions been left in the lurch as the clique deserted me to do the ‘good’ stuff and kiss the arse of the leadership that 'they are fighting for Scotland'.
When asked about what deals had been done as a result of Scotland House, a Scottish Government spokesman said:
"Scotland House hosted over 80 events and attracted more than 3000 visitors. More than 500 business leaders attended events designed to bring Scottish businesses together with potential investors in Scotland with a range of business meetings and potentially lucrative introductions, laying the groundwork for potential new investment or new jobs in Scotland."
Patently the spokesman thought he was dealing stupid people, another flaw in the SNP but in the end when pressed he had to blurt out that:
"We have not made any deals from Scotland House."
And that pretty much highlights what I say about the Scottish Government, too much assumption, lacking in vision, a middle class clique, and unable to deliver beyond a certain level.
A real genuine lack of talent!
Margaret Curran, the Shadow Scottish Secretary said:
"Every month people across Scotland are trying to make ends meet and now we hear Alex Salmond's half-a-million pound vanity project has brought no money and no jobs to Scotland. People will be wondering if the SNP can be trusted with their taxes."
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, said:
"This lavish ambassadorial-style party was supposed to generate business interest in Scotland but now we find not a single deal was signed. Alex Salmond may wish to present himself as some kind of presidential figure but must remember he still answers to the people of Scotland and he needs to explain why he wasted such a monumental sum of public money on this vain project."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:
"This has turned out to be a very expensive vanity project for Alex Salmond. Even though Dover House was offered to him free of charge, he was determined to do his own thing even though it's cost us hundreds of thousands of pounds."
He added: "The UK Government built on the back of the Olympics and ran a very professional operation, which the Scottish Government could have directly benefited from but it preferred to do its own thing."
George Laird of the Scottish National Party said:
“Grab as much money and freebies and foreign junkets as you can Mr. Salmond, five opinion polls see independence support crashing through the floor and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out why”.
Not one single deal signed, £400,000 wasted, opportunity to piggybank on British Business Embassy botched.
Total failure to achieve any real objectives, a world record for a Scottish First Minister at an Olympics.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
