New MSPs need to understand and support the value and importance of business
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by Stewart Nicol, chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce
The campaigning is almost over and the hustings have run their course. All that’s left now is the vital role each of us have to play when we cast our votes in a couple of days’ time, if we haven’t already done so by postal ballot.
Along with colleagues across the Scottish Chambers of Commerce network, we have engaged with local candidates and party leaders. Our activities have given all the choice to express their views and aspirations for the nation and society they would create, if we were to give them alone our vote.
All of our activities in this area have sought to represent the needs of our members and businesses across the Highlands, particularly as we strive to recover from the impact of the Covid restrictions. Our arguments have been focused on pressing the case for business and emphasised what we believe are the key asks we have at this time from the politicians who would aspire to serve our nation.
As campaigning started, Inverness Chamber of Commerce, along with the rest of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce network, called for the relationship between business and politicians to be reset in a policy document we issued ahead of the Holyrood election. Our Scottish Chambers of Commerce network represents more than 12,000 companies and more than 50 per cent of Scotland’s private sector workforce.
We argued Scottish parliamentarians need to understand and support the value and importance of business in the policy programmes they were setting out for their term in government.
In our Rally for Growth document, we set out a business-led action plan which is aimed at offering potential parliamentarians a blueprint for economic recovery in the wake of the damage caused by the coronavirus restrictions, impacts of leaving the EU, and a legacy of a slow growth in Scotland.
As we go into this new term of government in Scotland, Inverness Chamber of Commerce will continue to connect, support and represent our members. This will include holding the incoming Scottish Government to account for their pledges made to all of us over recent weeks.
