Alex Salmond has demanded that Westminster do more to support jobs and growth
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As David Cameron has today given an interview with the Daily Telegraph arguing that austerity will last until 2020, Alex Salmond has demanded that Westminster do more to support jobs and growth.
The Scottish first minister’s comments come following a day of mixed news for the Scottish economy. On the jobs front, the number of jobless fell by 4,000 to 215,000 between March and May.
This means that the Scottish unemployment rate is now 8%, just below the UK wide average of 8.1%.
However, in a blow to the country, figures revealed that Scotland had followed the rest of the UK into a double dip recession. Data revealed that the Scottish economy contracted by 0.1% in the first quarter of the year, fuelled by a sharp 6.9% fall in construction output.
Placing the blame squarely at the door at Number 10, Salmond declared that “the UK’s government’s austerity agenda and the prime minister’s failure to heed calls for direct investment in construction and infrastructure is hampering progress.”
He continued:
“With the full economic and financial powers of independence we could do even more to raise Scotland’s competitiveness and drive forward economic recovery.
“In the meantime the UK government must deliver substantial capital investment immediately to promote growth and jobs.”
Whilst Scottish Labour have sought to pin the blame on both Holyrood and Westminster, reaction in the Scottish press has George Osborne firmly in its sights.
At the Herald, in its editorial, whilst recognising Treasury announcements yesterday on infrastructure spending and the launch of the national loan scheme it warned:
“While all this should help to bring forward projects, it could take a year before the diggers move in and it is possible that the projects backed by government guarantee would go ahead anyway.
“By contrast the first minister’s call for direct investment in public sector projects would have the merit of getting some of his shovel-ready projects on site quickly. Mr Osborne would achieve more growth by recognising that investment in infrastructure has the double benefit of getting the economy and the country moving.”
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At the Scotsman, meanwhile, its leader has called on the Treasury to take a dose of Keynesianism economics, concluding:
“What really needs to be revisited is the UK government’s dogged adherence to a Plan A, in which the A stands for Austerity. Mr Osborne has been at pains to ensure the markets are in no doubt that he is serious about tackling the country’s debt mountain.
“But there is a growing consensus that the policy required to see off the bond traders two years ago is not the policy required now, under different international circumstances and in the absence of the green shoots of recovery that everyone hoped would now be beginning to peek through the soil.
“What the markets want to see is growth, and quickest way to growth is a cleverly targeted increase in government spending.
“Keynesianism has been a dirty word at the Treasury for two years, but circumstances change, and policy must change too. The injection of money into the economy argued for by both Labour and the SNP must happen if Scotland and Britain as a whole are to begin the slow climb back to recovery.”
Interestingly however, Professor John McLaren, of the Centre for Public Policy for Regions at the University of Glasgow argued that the figures published yesterday prove the needed for clearer economic data ahead of a referendum on independence.
Declaring that “overall, our economic prospects remain poor and the best way to improve them uncertain”, writing in the Scotsman he argues:
“Looking forward to the referendum, the current state of the economic data for Scotland remains inadequate. While we have data for the UK with and without the contribution of North Sea oil, we only have figures for Scotland without any share of North Sea oil. This situation could be easily corrected and should be.
“There is also a strong case for Scottish gross national product (GNP) to be published, as it more accurately measures the rewards from economic activity that remain within Scotland.
“Without this, the debate leading up to the referendum will be based on incomplete, possibly distorted information.”
Elsewhere, in Wales unemployment has risen to 9%, up 1.1% from the same period last year. Assessing the figures, Nick Servini BBC Wales business correspondent explains:
“Unemployment in Wales is not changing much for better or worse at the moment.
“Over the past six months it has gone up marginally three times and down the same. It has been at or above 130,000 for the past ten months, an historically high figure.
“During the pre-recession years of 2006 and 2008 that same figure stood at between 70,000 and 80,000.
“Employment has come down for the past three months, which will be worrying, but it has not reduced enough to raise major alarm bells yet.
“As you’d expect, the jobs’ market is sluggish in a double-dip recession and there is nothing to contradict that in today’s official figures for Wales.”
In Northern Ireland meanwhile, figures pointed to unemployment having risen to 6.9%, a 0.1% increase on the quarter before but down 0.2% on a year earlier.
Responding, Angela McGowan, Chief Economist at the Northern Bank is quoted in the Belfast Telegraph has having said:
“With economic stagnation and a far from dynamic labour market, unemployment levels remain remarkably resilient. However, the longer economic problems persist, the higher the chances of further job losses.”
Whilst arguing that high public sector employment in Northern Ireland had traditionally been a buffer she added:
“That safety blanket could rapidly erode if the UK coalition Government does not up its game when it comes to pulling the UK economy out of the current double-dip…
“Northern Bank forecasts suggest that unemployment in the local economy will peak at almost 64,000 claimants next year.”
35 Responses to “Alex Salmond blames Westminster for double-dip recession”
RolftheGanger
The SNP Government is markedly more financially responsible than current Westminster reliance on ballooning debt financing.
You do realise don’t you that “Quantitative Easing” is apolite way of saying: ‘diguised devaluation by sneaky methods that cheat savers out of the value of their savings, drain pension values, pay back others in devalued currency’. Whitehall is ever so good at using gloss words to put a spin in the dirty truth.
The inflow of major capital investment to Scotland demonstrates that far from the imaginary ‘uncertainty’, overseas markets have marked confidence in Scottish prospects.
Anonymous
The SNP, the people who want the Scots to sign a blank cheque?
That you blame “Whitehall” for Tory policy is typical. And what “inflow”? The “investors” making a mint off the Scottish power bills?
Anonymous
Yes, you keep saying “Westminster” when you mean “Tory”. Except, of course, you’re parroting Tory policy yourself. “Frugal Government”, slashed from the poor.
And yes, elements like trust are vital, which is why the SNP’s blank cheque approach is so misguided, and your approach of declaring yourself the winner, a clear commitment to rigging the vote, is a very good indication of why your bring the SNP none of it.
Polls are ONLY ever useful for trends, not for figures.
And I see you’re going to raise a revoloution in NI as well, and goodness knows your plans for Wales! Because, you know, I too can take you literally and mock you!
Done with the “ENGLISH SCUM” approach yet?It’s arrant bigotry, for someone who considers himself British and has no “English” identity (I’m not from an “English” background, I’m a BRITISH Jew).
RolftheGanger
The use of the term ‘Westminster’ is that both the Unionist parties are as bad as each other and it is the system of government that is the fundamental problem, not specific parties. Not all the world views life through a supposedly ‘inevitable’ Right/Left binary, linear logic mindset. Some of us are systems thinkers who take an over-view of the whole system and see the need for major structural reform.
Unionists keep trying to paint the Independence cause as ‘against’ something. The truth is more mundane. It is simply a search for better system of government so that we can improve the conditions of living of all the Scottish people. It sure as hell is not going to improve under a continued Union. I say that as an economist and long term activist. Not SNP, as it happens.
The either/or mindset of “must be Labour – or must be Tory” is very dated. Labour is part of the problem, not part of the solution. The new Left is about the excluded versus the power elite – concentrated in Westminster/Whitehall/the City/media that supports the whole sick system.
An example is thinking beyond the “being frugal equals robbing the poor” knee jerk rubbish. The obvious (to SNP Government supporters) alternative is cutting out waste and inefficiency in government, eg. the SNP have aggregated government power bills, got volume discounts – and stepped up aid to the poor. Google this week’s recent 11.5m a year step up in support for 124 women’s shelters across Scotland. Anyone who actually knows the SNP Government record will know that they fight Tory cuts tooth and nail.
Ethnicity (or religion) is not relevant to a debate about restructuring a better system of government. My grandparents were Irish and English as well as Gaelic Highlander and Lowland Broad Scots speaking. My wife and I both have English relatives as well as relatives in England. So what? Descending to emotion and abuse is waste of energy. The constitutional debate like many other issues has supporters in all quarters.
Don’t see any problem in you continuing to view yourself as British and Jewish. Why the angst? Britain is a geographical term. The island is not going to sink – or get towed into two different location, come the return to self government of both countries.
I am on extensive record on Disqus as posting in favour of post -independence reform of EWNI and urging people to prepare for the dissolution of the Union in 2015. Not a long time to re-think the governmental system and constitution of EWNI. The reason I bother is that it is the ordinary decent people of EWNI as well as Scotland who get the dirty end of the stick. The elite are so arrogant they cannot see change coming.
I hope that this explains that we see the issues from quite different viewponts. Peace be with you and yours as well as me and mine.
Anonymous
“Not all the world views life through a supposedly ‘inevitable’ Right/Left binary, linear logic mindset”
So basically, you’re denying you’re a right winger. Got it.
“Why the angst?”
“Angst”? You’re trying to destroy my country for short-term political goals. The SNP have done nothing more than any sensible people would do, and far less than the left would.
Isolationism, “self-government”, serves nobody well. A proper federal system for the UK would. We can’t discuss ANYTHING about the future because the SNP insist that a blank cheque be voted for – you’re getting an unknown. One which I don’t believe you’d find remotely appetising even in the medium term.
Calling me an “Elite” for not agreeing with seperationism is bluntly nasty. Peace? Pieces.