🌾Ideas to make Scotland better 🏉Captain of Holyrood Rugby 🪖 Part time soldier 🪗 Squeeze boxer All views and political commentary my own
Scotland, United Kingdom
Joined December 2023
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This is a practical, unsexy policy that can make a genuine, albeit small difference without creating winners and losers.
In many ways the opposite of food price caps…
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6d9…
Cameron Gillies retweeted
SLE wholeheartedly supports the campaign launched by @heraldscotland today.
Delighted to see the policies we launched in Holyrood last month reflected in this campaign.
More details on how they can be delivered are set out in our policy paper 👇
𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧
Deputy Business Editor Scott Wright says: "For many Scottish business owners, the arrival of a new rates bill has become a moment to dread.
"Hotels, pubs, restaurants and tourist accommodation providers have reported sharp and unexpected increases in costs following the latest revaluation of non-domestic property in Scotland, leaving many scrambling to find thousands of pounds extra every month to meet their bills.
"That’s why The Herald is today launching Reset The Rates, a major campaign for fundamental reform of Scotland's business rates system.
"Backed by leading business figures and industry organisations, the campaign argues the current regime is too complex, too unpredictable and increasingly risks holding back sectors that are vital to local economies and communities."
FIND OUT MORE 👇
Fantastic initiative and great to see @EmmaRoddickSNP providing a Scottish voice for the panel putting together the manifesto. Looking forward to getting some @grow_scot ideas submitted…
NEWS: Today I’m launching The Small Ideas Initiative. We want you to submit ideas at Small-Ideas.org for non-controversial fixes, e.g “live sewage updates for beaches” or “standardised allergen menus”.
A year ago, an interviewer asked what I’d have told the Government if I’d been advising it, I replied, 'Come up with 100 small things that piss people off and fix one a day for the first 100 days'. As I left the stage, I emailed myself, 'set up Small ideas institute!'
And today, I’m excited it's happening. I’m funding two charities to work together to collate the submissions, narrow them down to about 200 doables then turn those into formal policy proposals which I'll bring back to you for feedback.
Then to finish we've a Cross-Party panel who’ve agreed to pick 50ish, after which we’ll start trying to make them happen. You can read far more about it and who the cross party panel are here… blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2…
Great chat with @PaulMcLennan7 at @DunglassEstate this afternoon alongside representatives from @ELCouncil.
We all agree on the need to reduce barriers to growth in Scotland. That’s why we’re working with MSPs and local authorities to reform planning and encourage investment.
Cameron Gillies retweeted
I have been trying to work out why the Carlson—Rees-Mogg interview is going viral. I think it’s because because it represents the moment when traditional conservatism, defined by courtesy, self-restraint and truth, visibly overcomes the feverish, conspiracist and bellicose post-liberal Right.
Sir @Jacob_Rees_Mogg was the perfect instrument of destruction. He is a man of unquestioned sincerity, intellect and courtliness. He was one of only two Ali G interviewees to emerge with his reputation enhanced, the other being Tony Benn, and for the same reason: utter sincerity. With Tucker, as with the brilliant Baron-Cohen, he bats away feverish, crackpot claims in a calm, measured and devastatingly gracious way.
What ended McCarthyism was the dignified put down delivered by the Army’s lawyer, Joseph Welch, on live TV in June 1954: “Senator, you have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?” Joe McCarthy died three years later at the age of 48, broken and disgraced.
As Welch to McCarthy, so Mogg to Tucker.
Here is a plan that would help save this pub right now: scottishlandandestates.co.uk…
No need for more reviews or consultations. It is good to go.
Let’s help this pub, and thousands of other rural businesses like it and sort this issue out now @JohnSwinney
thetimes.com/uk/scotland/art…
Here’s a contemporary example of a food price cap not working from one of our closest neighbours.
Will @scotgov consider this evidence or are they only looking for positive international examples?
It’s as if Labour want to deny the existence of their countryside constituencies.
Ahead of next month’s budget, they will do well to remember that only by retaining those constituencies can they remain in power.
#BlackLabsMatter
🚨 EXCL: Labour minister claims that visions of Britain based on warm ale, pubs, and black labradors are a 'far-Right' fantasy that 'never really existed’
dailymail.com/news/article-1…
Always banging on about the need to stop talking about the problems and start coming up with solutions.
Well, here’s a crack at practicing what I preach!
📣 Our plan to fix Scotland’s Business Rates System
Scottish businesses are fed up with reviews, working groups and talking shops. They just want a solution.
So, here it is: tinyurl.com/484m5y4b
Good to speak to @KieranPAndrews ahead of yesterday’s debate in Holyrood on Scotland’s flood resilience.
Upstream solutions to these challenges are already making a difference and that is where we should be focussing our resources.
Looking forward to Matt Hancock’s column in the Sunday Times offering to help Angela Constance tackle Scotland’s drug death record…
‘We may face circumstances where people have to die to save their country’
A real leader would say this collectively - ‘we’ may have to die to save ‘our’ country.
Such a sacrifice clearly should not be expected of Sir Jacob…
In Holyrood today to launch a paper on reforming non domestic rates in Scotland.
We all agree this needs to be sorted; not with reviews or consultations, but with a practical solution.
Thanks to all the MSPs who came to hear from us! 👇
scottishlandandestates.co.uk…
An interesting test of Scottish Cabinet Ministers to see what is more important to them: making the country a better place or scoring a cheap political point…
thetimes.com/uk/scotland/art…
I hope @AngelaRayner and @JohnHealey_MP can learn lessons from @scotgov’s recent u-turn on charging a percentage rate rather than a flat fee like literally every other country that has adopted a tourist tax.
Oh wait…
Regional mayors in England will be given powers to impose a "no cap" tourist tax on both domestic and foreign visitors to their areas, under new proposed government plans.
@amandaakass is outside No. 10 and reports on what we know so far.
Cameron Gillies retweeted
@donaldlabour has defended the Guga Hunt, saying the campaign to ban it has been "deeply distressing" for the people of Ness who have been othered and portrayed as backwards.
More on this to come in @TheScotsman 👇
I’m really not sure about this campaign - not just because they stole ‘Rural Reset’ from a policy paper I wrote two years ago…
It offers nothing to solve the problems rural communities face. It says nothing new and only serves to embed stereotypes we’d do well to shed. (1/2)
An unprecedented range of government policies over the past two years have left rural people feeling under attack.
If political leaders want to speak for all parts of the country, they have to hear the countryside too.
Now is the time for a rural reset: ruralreset.org/
Telling politicians they don’t understand the countryside doesn’t make them want to change. It just creates a wedge between us and them.
What we should be doing is offering ideas, expertise and solutions. Not trite, snide comments followed by pleas for more ‘recognition’ (2/2)
Given all the existing barriers to growth in Scotland, @lfg_uk’s first foray into Scottish Policy doesn’t fail to fill the bingo card of tokenism:
✅ Central Belt
✅ Unevidenced benefits
✅ Uncosted spend
✅ Based on individual grievances
✅ No ‘how’, only ‘what’
4/10
