Our book, Scotland 2070, is a plea to pursue six big opportunities over 50 years.
For those who say, “that’s all very well but what do we do now to deal with Covid?”, here is our response. “Don’t waste a crisis. Kick start major investments for these long-term goals.”
First of all, how about we accelerate the creation of a successful, wood economy within Scotland. Our aim is to plant or grow 5 billion trees over 50 years, from 18% of Scotland forested to at least 50%. Tripling our current solid but unambitious programme would achieve this sooner. Good for the environment and good for the local communities around Scotland. At the same time how about a radical change to building regulations and practices right now, to encourage the demand for high-quality wood-based structural buildings and efficient housing. Great first steps.
Secondly, let’s remove our poor digital infrastructure much faster than our current plans allow for. Look how Estonia has done it. World-class fast broadband throughout the whole country. How come a smaller, poorer country has achieved this? I hear the politicians saying, “But we are doing that already”. Our answer- not nearly fast enough. Think of a number and activity and multiply that by ten.
Thirdly, let’s anticipate the fact that Scotland could become the largest European exporter of renewable energy. Surely, we can find ways to offer small or start-up, energy-intensive businesses cheaper electricity now. It’s a barrier to investment that could be overcome earlier than later.
Fourthly, start the process of tripling R&D, an essential long-term objective for Scotland. Perhaps a first step would be to increase funds for the Scottish Investment Bank for marine, AI, healthcare and agroforestry to achieve our proposed six, big, long term opportunities.
Finally, expand our currently minimal cooperation with Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark on the future development of the Arctic region, preparing for the melting of the Arctic Ice and the impending opening of the North East passage. Stephen Gethin’s new book, Nation to Nation, Scotland’s Place in the world and previous books by Lesley Riddoch give a context for this plea to look North, not South.
But above all, we agree with the Chairman of Scotland CBI who calls for “a bonfire of quangos” in Scotland. “When all is said and done, more is said than done”. The priority surely is to sponsor action groups working on short-term initiatives to accelerate a vision for Scotland’s future economy, no matter which politics prevail.