Helping Those Who Want To Work

Shadow Secretary of State for Works and Pensions, Chris Grayling MP, visited Edinburgh today to announce a whole range of measures Conservatives intend to take to help businesses stay afloat, to help individuals survive the recession and to help those who find themselves made unemployed get back to work as quickly as possible, should they win the next General Election.

A wide range of business organisations were present and I think they went away encouraged by the breadth and depth of proposals Chris put forward. It is clear that David Cameron and his team genuinely understand the pain people are feeling across the country and have a very positive and definite approach to helping those most in need.

To play my part, in East Renfrewshire I propose to set up a new "East Ren Jobs Club" as a self help and support group for those struggling in difficult economic times. Whether it is help with writing of a CV, tips on interviews or simply providing someone to listen to those frustrated by the length of time it takes to find a job the East Ren Jobs Club is something I can do to help minimise the impact of the recession on East Renfrewshire.

Basic Arithmetic Tells You These Numbers Don't Add Up!

Unemployment in Scotland rose by 19,000 in the last quarter, according to the governments preferred measure, to 124,000. But here's where you see, yet again, why the public mistrust government statistics so much.

On the same quarter last year today's figures represent an increase of 2,000 on the corresponding unemployment figure for last year and yet the governments own statistics for the number of people employed in Scotland fell by 10,000 over the corresponding period.

While depopulation, an increase to the number of people retiring and some people going back to retrain may account for some of this difference so many of us have anecdotal stories to tell of family, friends and friends of friends who have lost their job in Scotland as our economy falls into recession and this yet again reinforces the old adage - "lies damn lies and statistics".

The cheery words of our Secretary of State for Scotland, designed I am sure to reassure us that we have little to worry about, simply do not cut it when you have a mortgage to pay and can see the prospect of unemployment on the horizon. It is time for government to set ordinary businesses free to create prosperity and secure jobs by giving them an amnesty on red tape and cutting business taxes so that they have money to invest in their employees.

UK Plc is perfectly capable of making a go of things in difficult times if government leave us alone and give us the tools to do so!

Harsh Realities Are Hard To Live With!

Today I experienced at first hand the devastating effect, on employer and employee alike, of having to make people redundant as a result of the economic downturn affecting the UK's construction sector.

The prospect of laying off any member of staff, particularly those you know are sole earners in their household, is simply something no one could enjoy - and it is certainly something that left me feeling totally empty as I arrived home tonight. And you know it's an immensely upsetting experience when you can see in the eyes of rough and tough Glasgow businessmen that they are being moved, as much as they would care to publicly show, by having to action this tough decision.

Every well run business has a wealth of reports and statistics on which to base its business plans and there is nothing more difficult that seeing figures that say an overhead needs to be trimmed, particularly when that overhead is in terms of members of staff. The Directors of the construction companies I manage have undertaken the painful process of laying off staff on the basis of the reports I provide and I feel completely devastated at the impact this is having on good people I have enjoyed working with.

And the reasons for the need to take such drastic action? Quite simply it is a complete lack of leadership and support for the sector from our Labour government.


Despite government set targets for a huge amount of new build housing over the next decade, and beyond, all our major house builders are suspending work on existing sites of pulling altogether new start sites on which they have placed orders. The reasons for this are two fold:

1) Our banks and financial institutions are reducing their exposure to risk in the sector by pulling funding from a huge number of construction projects;

2) It is so difficult for prospective home buyers, particularly potential first time buyers, to secure a mortgage because our banks are reducing their exposure to risk here too!

So, even though our financial institutions know there is bright future for the sector in the medium to long terms none of them are prepared to be the first to help stimulate recovery in the construction sector as they hold our Labour government responsible for the financial unrest they are experiencing as a result of the Northern Rock fiasco. Worse still, they see no leadership by government to encourage an economic upturn in the construction sector or the mortgage markets, which they appear to me to be taking as a sign that government is content to live with the current downturn - even though this will mean the UK misses the governments own new build housing targets!

I really can't predict what the effect on morale, as a result of today's lay offs, will be. My only consolation is that I know these businesses are fundamentally sound and that the remaining employees should enjoy job security, all things being equal. One can only hope that our governments doesn't do anything further to ruin economic confidence in which case the entrepreneurial spirit that built the companies will ensure long term job security for them all!

Freescale Job Losses Are A Disaster For Our Local Economy

Today's announcement that Freescale is to close its semiconductor manufacturing plant in East Kilbride, (the old Motorola factory), with the loss of 750 skilled manufacturing jobs and many additional redundancies in associated supply companies, really is a disaster for our local economy.

For many years, I worked with a dedicated management team at this site to design a state of the art waste management and recycling solutions at this factory. Having done so I know the importance of Freescale to so many associate companies in the service sector, companies who supply goods and services to Freescale, and before it Motorola, and suspect that the true scale of the impact of this announcement is still to be fully realised by the media and public alike.

I fear the full extent of today's announcement will not be fully understood until the plant finally closes, with the inevitable loss of jobs this brings both to Freescale personnel and to those businesses who have been reliant on servicing this site to sustain their core business.

Our Labour government proves itself completely inept once again at retaining vital manufacturing business within the UK, exactly the type of business that creates new wealth which enables the State to proposer from tax revenues it can then invest into improved local services from which we all benefit.

So many people in East Renfrewshire work directly or indirectly to Freescale - I truly hope they all find suitable alternative employment and can assure them I empathise with them at this very difficult time.