This is unbelievable. The Secretary of State for Scotland calls for Scots to be more entrepreneurial:
"We really need to get out of this psychological problem of (not) celebrating success. We have got success in the Scottish economy."All very well except for the small point that Helen Liddell's own Scottish Labour party is just about the most anti-entrepreneurial organisation on the planet.Giving her view that efforts to change attitudes should begin in schools, she added: "Our cup is always half-empty. It is never half-full. We have an inability to say to people: 'Well done.'
"That is one of the big factors that limits entrepreneurship in Scotland. It breeds a climate of risk aversion."
The article goes on to say:
Highlighting research undertaken by Scottish Enterprise in the 1990s, Liddell said: "When people were asked about entrepreneurs, they seemed to see them more in the form of Arthur Daley (a second-hand car dealer in the television series Minder) rather than the men and women who are creating real opportunities in Scotland."Yes. They get the "stick" from her own party. Anyone who thinks that Labour is a friend of business is living in cloud-cuckoo-land. Liddell isn't known as "Stalin's Granny" for nothing.Liddell said of successful Scottish entrepreneurs: "I think they come in for a lot of stick."
1 comment:
David
There is something totally ludicrous about Labour kidding on it is a friend of the entrepreneur when it is plainly nothing of the sort. Labour – the prefix ‘new’ is a bit superfluous in Scotland – in its heart is not only deeply hostile to business, but just plain ignorant of it. How many ministers have had business experience? And how often do you hear ministers banging on about the nebulous concept of social inclusion (whatever that actually is) compared with concern expressed for the state of the Scottish economy?
Although I might suggest to some of these Labour types that economic prosperity is an absolutely necessary prerequisite to anybody having any type of inclusion in society, I would most likely be met with confused stares before they wandered off to plan their next “See me, I am person not a label” campaign.
Lip service is given to the idea of a more entrepreneurial Scotland while Labour in its heart is more interested in the kind of top down solutions which fail every time.
Originally posted 24th February 2003
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