THE SNP’s independence prospectus was “lacking on business and economics” and voters didn’t believe it was affordable, the head of the main business group for Yes has said.
Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, the founder and chief executive of Business for Scotland, criticised the SNP’s White Paper at the Scottish Green party conference yesterday.
Hosting an impromptu session on Brexit, Mr MacIntyre-Kemp attacked the 2013 document, saying: “The White Paper last time was lacking on business and economics. It was lacking on the environment. It was lacking on so many things.
“It was really strong on health and social care, but then everybody thought, ‘Well, great, but there’s nothing in there that says we can afford this’.”
Mr MacIntyre-Kemp also warned Brexit could knock £7bn off Scottish GDP and queried the impartiality of the country’s leading independent economic thinktank, calling the Fraser of Allander Institute “no friend of Scottish independence” and “pro-Union”.
An SNP and Green voter, he predicted UK Tory majority governments for 30 years.
Scottish Tory MSP Alex Johnstone said: “Considering Mr MacIntyre-Kemp was supposed to be the business brains behind the Yes movement, this is quite an admission.
“It would suggest not only did the No camp realise the White Paper was an ill-thought out pack of lies, but senior figures among the independence campaign did too.
“The Scottish Government treated voters with contempt in publishing the now derided White Paper. It’s time for the SNP to join Mr MacIntyre-Kemp in acknowledging this.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel