EXCLUSIVE
A GROUP of five wealthy Scottish businessmen emerged yesterday as major backers of an independent Scotland.
To the delight of the SNP they will fund a programme aimed at answering the business community's entrenched suspicion that Scottish independence inevitably means economic trouble.
The five are directors of a new campaigning group called Business for Scotland set up earlier this year after private talks with the Nationalists, who are courting commerce and industry in the run-up to the Scottish Parliament elections in May next year.
Business for Scotland is backed by a six-figure sum for funding preliminary work, including regular briefings for the business community through substantial supplements in the trade magazine Scottish Business Insider. It will also fund seminars, conferences and political and economic briefings for businessmen.
The five board members are:
q Dennis MacLeod, self-made multi-millionaire from Sutherland who made his money abroad in gold mining;
q Jim Mather, a Glasgow chartered accountant and driving force in the Scottish electronics industry;
q David McCarthy, Kent-born and now retired director of a major Scottish fish-farming enterprise;
q James Scott, former civil servant who headed the Scottish Office industry and education departments, and was later chief executive of the former Scottish Development Agency;
q David Ross, chief of Clan Ross, packaging industry executive who worked in development in Lanarkshire and Fife and, later, in Europe.
The SNP reacted with delight at what it sees as one of its biggest business coups since Sir Hugh Fraser abandoned the Tories a generation ago and endorsed the Nationalists.
Party leader Alex Salmond said: ''Just look at the calibre of those people. We know there are many business people in Scotland who are extremely sympathetic to the idea that constitutional change is a stimulant for business and not a problem. They are not yet on the ascendancy but they will be.''
Mr MacLeod told The Herald: ''For generations the Scottish business community has been taught to believe that Home Rule or Independence would be bad for the economy. There were dire warnings during the referendum campaign that businesses would flee the country for England and elsewhere - and the opposite is happening.
''I have not the slightest doubt that an independent Scotland would be wealthy and prosperous. That is the message we want to get across to the business community which is still stuck in the mindset of the past.''
All sorts of opportunities awaited business entrepreneurs in Scotland, he said. Asked to suggest two, he cited the minerals industry and the financial sector.
Mining could be significant if the law were changed to allow foreign companies to invest in Scotland, he said. And the Scottish Stock Exchange should be re-opened, if necessary on a small and specialist basis until it grew.
Business in Scotland will start operations in SNP accommodation in Edinburgh and will be run by Samantha Barber, until recently a senior party aide in Brussels and Strasbourg. Its letterhead will be a PO Box until it acquires its own property.
It will invite subscriptions and members from all political parties.
''We invite controversy,'' Mr MacLeod said. ''We will go with articles which don't agree with our view if they cause some good debate.''
Mr Mather said: ''One way to attract business sympathy is to speak the language of the business community, for example to compare an independent Scotland with a business demerger or a management buy-out.
''These have proved to be successful and popular concepts and comparable to demerging countries like Scotland and England. This is an argument we can win.''
MAIN PLAYERS - 2 LEADER COMMENT - 16
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