When I speak to business people in England now I sense their relief. Relief that the economic policies proposed by the Labour Party are no longer a threat and relief there is now a Government with a strong majority and clear purpose.
Most people I deal with would have preferred the UK to have remained in the EU but after over 3 years of debilitating plughole circling what they are relieved about is that a clear decision has been made. This feeling is not only of academic interest making for a cheerier Christmas - it really matters.
Companies can now start to plan, to dust off investment plans, to create wealth and jobs. Of course there will be difficulties as the UK leaves the EU but the fever has broken and people can move forward.
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Not all parts of the UK voted for a Conservative Government. North Ireland has its own very different politics. Among other places London voted Labour as did Wales. Scotland also voted differently, with about a third of the electorate voting for the SNP. Wales and London seem to accept that although they didn’t vote for the Government we have now got, the UK as a whole did.
Scotland’s problem, and it is a problem, is that we have relapsed into an SNP led victim mode. The cringeworthy wailing that we are being ignored, that this is all an outrage, that somehow the panto Tory villains have done us in - it’s just embarrassing.
In contrast to those in England , who are more positive, business people in Scotland are much less so. They cannot take the view that political uncertainty is behind us and start planning for growth. They dread the SNP’s disruptive agenda.
They know the SNP’s currency plans are undeliverable and carry many dangers, they know that England is four times as important a market for Scotland as the rest of the EU ( and twice as big for us as the rest of the world is ) and that disrupting frictionless access to that market would be catastrophic for Scotland’s prosperity. They fear that given free rein the SNP’s interventionist instincts and spending plans coupled with Scotland’s large budget deficit would mean interference in their business and crushing taxation on their company and their family.
So what is a rational business person in Scotland forced to consider now instead of focusing solely on growing their business ? The answer is that they start to think of moving activity and themselves out of Scotland.
I am not suggesting that business investment will cease or that all those who run and own businesses will leave in January. That won’t happen but what those who support independence fail to realise is that there are few really large businesses which are only active in Scotland, they have activities well beyond it and the choice of where investment goes is affected by political uncertainty. There are also few owners of large businesses in Scotland who are here all the time - they travel extensively, they might have a home in London or abroad as well as in Scotland, almost certainly some of their family will live outside Scotland. For these people it is quite easy to slightly shift where they spend their weekends, where their business is run from or where they build a new factory to a place outside Scotland.
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The SNP has no mandate for a second referendum and the uncertainty caused by constantly calling for one will result in Scotland being less prosperous. If the Scottish Government actually cares about Scotland and its people it should get over the election result, concentrate on its day job and engage constructively with the UK Government.
Guy Stenhouse is a Scottish financial sector veteran who wrote formerly as Pinstripe.
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