Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - As a member of the Scottish Parliament one of the unexpected benefits is my access to the rather more numerous NHS dentists in the central belt.
And after a painful infection of my gum – which my spouse tells everyone, made me grumpy – I have had treatments to rebuild a tooth which had broken. Good as new.
With progress being made to bring some new dental training to Aberdeen – a proposal I welcomed some three years ago – we might see some of these students settle here after completing their courses.
Because there is particular and perhaps surprising benefit to training dentists in Scotland.
A research report, "Access to Dental Health Services in Scotland", indicates that 72.5 per cent of our NHS dentists were born in Scotland. But 88.8 per cent of our dentists were trained in Scotland.
So training dentists in Scotland who have come from elsewhere results in a significant number enjoying our country so much that they stay. Quite the opposite of a view sometimes expressed that we train other people's workers.
In fact the 285 dentists from elsewhere who stayed in Scotland because they were trained here represent one sixth of all our NHS dentists. That is why training is so vital and why I and others in different political parties support every effort to provide additional training in Scotland and in the North East in particular.
These numbers and the Parliamentary debate on the subject this month will give us something to chew over for some time to come—that is, for those of us who still have teeth with which to chew.
A Banker for Scotland's Future
A debate last week on the Scottish government's strategy for the financial service industry was an opportunity to remind ourselves of the role Parliament has played in making Scotland the third – arguably the second – most important financial centre in Europe.
And with that, over 100,000 well paid jobs in Scotland.
The credit due to our Parliament is substantial but was created some time ago.
It was an act of the Scots Parliament in January 1695 that established the Bank of Scotland, which opened for business on 17 July of that year. Of course, the Bank of Scotland was set up because William Paterson, a Scot, had established the Bank of England the previous year, causing a certain amount of resentment. Therefore, English interests came to Scotland to establish the Bank of Scotland together with local businessmen and persuaded our Parliament to pass the necessary legislation.
The initial board of the Bank of Scotland had 12 members, six English and six Scottish—very fair and very reasonable. Of course, the articles of association passed by Parliament stated that only directors who lived in Scotland could vote at board meetings—very fair and very equitable. If only we had such rules in business today.
There are some consequences of Bank of Scotland operating under a parliamentary act which is 310 years old – although they are more interesting in theory than in practice.
One may notice that unlike other companies Bank of Scotland is not a “plc”. And because it is not a “limited company” operating under the Companies Acts, it does not need to obey them.
So it is (probably) not legally obliged to publish annual accounts. And only started doing so in the late 1940s. But the practical men and women who run the bank do in practice operate to the laws that bind others.
An exception is that they have long provided accounts to homeless people who are “Big Issue” sellers despite the various acts requiring customers to produce council tax bills, electricity bills and the like to prove who they really are. Something the homeless cannot do.
And the bank informed government that it was doing it. Government knew better than to tackle the bank and I believe the practice continues!
But the strategy we debated in Parliament might take the forelock tugging to banks interests a wee bit too far. It is full of what banks want of government. What government and people want of banks is all but absent.
We must hope that any dispute about that does not go the way of a falling out that the Bank of Scotland's manager in Kirkcaldy had with one of his customers in the second half of the nineteenth century.
By way of offering to settle the matter, the customer challenged the manager to a duel – and the manager was foolish enough to accept – and lose!
The gun that killed that manager may be examined in the Bank of Scotland museum to this day.
