Two of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs have welcomed the appointment of Scotland’s new First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Speaking on the Go Radio Business Show with Hunter and Haughey, Lord Willie Haughey commented: “I would say this – not in a disparaging way – but John Swinney is a regurgitated First Minister. He’s been there before. But I also think the appointment of Kate Forbes as his Deputy is a good one.
“John Swinney has an idea about the economy and Kate Forbes certainly has an idea about the economy. So I would think, if you are an SNP follower, you would be happy. Some will not be as happy because of what’s been said about Kate’s beliefs but I think the SNP are probably in a better position than they were last week.”
His radio show co-host Sir Tom Hunter said: “I think from a business point of view, it’s good news. We always judge people on their actions, not their words, but John Swinney is a very decent human being.
“We’ve worked with him in lots of things through the Hunter Foundation. I always re-quote him saying that one of his best ministerial decisions was to know when to get out the way, which I thought was a very enlightened thing for a politician to say.
“The brief time we had working with Kate on business, I really liked her. I thought she was pragmatic. I thought she got on with the job and she got business. But I’m always going to judge people on their actions.
“John Swinney was very able. He got the enterprise philosophy and Kate did as well. So we wish them good luck because Scotland’s businesses need them to have their backs. We don’t need too much from them but they do need to look at housing, the hospitality sector, the retail sector, the rates, the tax, all the stuff we talk about every week. I’m not going to repeat it all again, but we know what the priorities are. Businesses know what the priorities are.
“I just hope the new First Minister and the Deputy First Minister know what they are.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here