Author Archives: Jamie Greene

To paraphrase a famous election campaign, what do the Scottish Liberal Democrats do for a working-class boy from Greenock?

Well, in my case they make him their Economy and Finance spokesperson in the Scottish Parliament.

I’m delighted to be able to speak for us on this portfolio at Holyrood and honoured by the trust I’ve been shown as our newest Lib Dem MSP. I’m also aware there is a lot of hard work to do.

In nearly two decades in power, the SNP have failed to deliver. They have preferred bureaucracy and constitutional bickering over supporting Scottish businesses, particularly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

As deputy convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit committee, I see what has gone wrong on a weekly basis.

Figures from the Auditor General lay bare the SNP’s economic mismanagement.

While the tax powers of the Scottish Government have brought in an extra £3,367 billion, a startling £2,738 billion has effectively been lost due to policy decisions taken in Scotland, leaving just £629 million available to use. In layman’s terms, just 20p in the pound of additional tax paid due to divergent policies is available to spend.

This has been labelled the “economic performance gap” by the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission and it should worry us all.

The gap is a direct result of Scottish Government decisions and is a creation of the SNP in government. “Pay More, Get Less”, should feature on every SNP leaflet at next year’s election.