RURAL communities will be better connected under plans for an independent Scotland, SNP front-bencher Michael Russell has said.
The Scottish Government has already set out its proposal to establish a Rural Connectivity Commission following a Yes vote in the referendum to consider how to improve issues like mobile and broadband coverage, postal services and transport.
Rural communities are home to almost a fifth of Scotland's population and in 2011 contributed more than £32 billion to the economy.
The Government says it will improve telephone and broadband coverage, deliver better parcel and delivery charges, ensure fairer fuel prices and energy bills, establish improved transport links and achieve the "true potential of rural Scotland's renewable resources".
Ahead of a campaign visit to Ullapool, Highland, the Education Secretary said: "Rural communities across the country make an extraordinary contribution to our economy and our national life - but for too long rural Scotland has been held back by a distant Westminster establishment obsessed with London and the south east of England. But with the full powers of independence we can take real action to help our rural communities achieve their potential - and improving the technological and transport connectivity of communities across Scotland will be a major boost to investment and jobs in rural areas."
George Lyon, chair of Rural Better Together, said: "People in the Highlands and Islands will not be taken in by the latest attempt at a referendum bribe from an SNP government who think our vote can be bought and sold with empty promises.
"At present we have a universal postal service that ensures people using the Royal Mail pay the same price for delivery in Lerwick as they do in London ... that is what the SNP want us to walk away from."
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 hereComments are closed on this article