Allan Wilson:
I will try in
the short time available to summarise the debate. I take employment as
my theme.
Scotland's
share of manufacturing exports is considerably higher than its share of
manufacturing employment. Scotland's export share has increased since 1980
while its share of manufacturing employment has declined. To contradict
the point made by Linda Fabiani, that can in part be explained by Scotland's
success in attracting export-oriented inward investments. Non-UK companies
now produce over 70 per cent of all Scottish manufactured exports.
The export market
is dominated by large companies. As Mary Mulligan said, the electronics
sector is particularly important—53 per cent of exports are from that sector.
As has been said earlier, export targets are being met and even exceeded.
That also means—and this is one of the few occasions when I agree with
John Swinney—that there is a need to diversify from our existing manufacturing
base and to set new targets.
Much of that
success is the result of high productivity. Manufacturing labour productivity
in Scotland has increased and is now above the UK average, although as
Annabel Goldie said, we lag behind France, Germany and North America. That
is what the debate is about: the current and projected UK economic climate
in a global economy, and Scotland's position in it. Scottish and UK manufacturers
have performed resiliently in the face of difficult international trading
conditions.
Contrary to
the doom and gloom spread by the SNP talking down the Scottish manufacturing
sector, in fact, as Henry McLeish said, manufacturing output in Scotland
increased by 1.4 per cent while it decreased in the rest of the UK, an
example of UK monetary policy benefiting manufacturing industry in Scotland.
Mr Swinney:
If Allan Wilson had listened to my speech this morning, I gave a number
of points of information on areas where I support the improved performance
of the manufacturing sector in very difficult conditions. However, I do
not want the Government presenting a strategy to Parliament today that
ignores the realities of trading conditions experienced by engineering
and manufacturing organisations. Such a strategy would not be very effective.
Allan Wilson:
Henry McLeish did not ignore those points. John Swinney ignored the point
that Malcolm Chisholm was making about his solution to the problem. The
manufacturing sector has grown by 7.8 per cent and Scotland's share is
at an all-time high. As Mike Watson said, and it is worth repeating, the
Scottish manufacturing industry is outperforming the rest of the UK.
I want to stress
that over the period of decline in manufacturing employment, employment
as a whole has grown: 65,000 jobs as a result of growth in the new service
sector. New high-tech industries have more than compensated for the loss
of jobs in traditional manufacturing. International Labour Organisation
figures show that unemployment is the lowest for a generation and levels
of employment are at a 30-year high.
Alex Neil:
Will the member give way? The Labour Government increased unemployment
in Scotland to over 100,000.
Allan Wilson:
I will keep going. I will come to Alex Neil's point in a minute. When new
Labour came to power many sceptics, including Alex, claimed that we had
a political ball and chain. The doctrine of the right that new Labour defeated
was that unemployment was a price worth paying for economic growth—
Alex Neil: The
Labour Government increased unemployment in Scotland to over 100,000.
Allan Wilson:
We defeated the Conservatives.
One of the many
factors that distinguishes us from the failed right is our commitment to
employment as an engine of economic growth as well as of social justice.
The minimum wage is another distinguishing factor.
I can remember
the previous Labour Government—Alex Neil can, too, because the SNP and
its Tory cohorts defeated that Government to herald in a right-wing, Thatcherite,
monetarist agenda. I remember the lessons of that Labour Government and
I remember the Saatchi & Saatchi "Labour isn't working" posters. The
charge was that Labour could not manage the economy. It was argued that
we were synonymous with a run on sterling, a balance of payments deficit,
public expenditure cuts, a weak pound, runaway inflation and high personal
taxation.
Miss Goldie:
rose—
Alex Neil:
rose—
Allan Wilson:
Our people paid the price for the loss of that Labour Government, which
the SNP brought about. Our record in office now is low inflation, low and
falling unemployment, growing employment, public expenditure growth, manufacturing
export growth, lower relative interest rates, and low—soon to be lower—personal
taxation.
We have a successfully
managed economy, the result of which is strong sterling. The exchange rate
is not set by Government but by the exchange markets. Like Mike Watson,
I think that it is important to recognise that the monetary policy committee
sets interest rates for the economy as a whole and not for any one sector,
region or nation. That has brought economic stability and the ability to
grow public expenditure and cut personal taxation and overall taxation
at the same time.
John Swinney's
amendment, by implication if not explicitly, threatens that economic stability,
as does Alex Neil's nonsense about independence in Europe—even if the Europe
part of that is dropped—which nobody believes in, except the majority fundamentalist
wing of the SNP.
Mr Swinney:
That was uncalled for.
Allan Wilson:
He cannae deny it.
The Deputy Presiding
Officer: To a point and to a conclusion, Mr
Wilson.
Allan Wilson:
Although John Swinney is rapidly retreating
from the idea, his proposition of a neverendum is arguably worse. It introduces
constitutional instability, which produces economic instability à
la québécoise. We have seen what constitutional instability
has done to the Quebec economy; it would do the same to ours.
I support the
motion and reject the amendment.
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