Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - I had the opportunity to meet with students from outwith Banff and Buchan, as well as those from the constituency.
The reason they came to Parliament was to highlight the depressing fact that, four months after graduating, 81% were still looking for their first job. This seems at odds with the bizarre situation we currently have, as there are 28,000 patients in Scotland waiting to see a physiotherapist.
If a patient has to wait, they run the risk that their condition becomes chronic due to lack of early physiotherapy intervention. The fact is that there is a pool of talent that is not being drawn from, and this is wasteful and damaging. If these graduates are not employed and trained, we will not have the senior or specialist physiotherapists in the future on whom the NHS heavily relies.
In order to maintain their skills, many graduates are seeking work abroad, and this will be a drain on our skilled workforce. And with the latest estimates suggesting that it takes £28,580 to train a physiotherapy graduate, the job shortage would represent a potential wasted investment of £2.5 million. The Scottish Executive must and should be doing more to protect taxpayers' investment. We have the opportunity to act to prevent a crisis, and this must be acted upon.
Scotland can ill afford to lose our well-trained graduates, who are desperately needed to treat patients more quickly, as many patients can be seen by a physiotherapist rather than having to wait to see a consultant.
I must say that I was very impressed with they way the students from Banff and Buchan made their case. It shows that the public can and should become involved in politics.
Speaking both as a local politician and as someone who has had the need of physiotherapy treatment in the past, I hope that once those students graduate, a job will be waiting for them.
There was welcome news with the release that a record number of overseas visitors came to Scotland last year. There were nearly 2.4 million tourists in 2005, a 50% increase on 2001 – which happened to be the year of a double blow for the industry with the foot-and-mouth outbreak and the World Trade Centre attacks. The reason that this is significant is that the tourism industry is worth an estimated £4.2 billion to the Scottish economy, with £1.2 billion spent by overseas visitors alone. More could be done, however, to promote Scotland as a tourist destination, and in particular the North-east.
Tourism can part fill the financial gap of communities whose main industries have dwindled. I know for a fact that the North-east has a great deal to offer that would greatly interest many of those visitors from abroad who seek Scotland as a place to visit. After all, we have breathtaking scenery, warm and friendly people, local food and other produce, which has a distinctive flavour that encapsulates the Scottish larder. And our coastal and historical sites add to the unique selling point that the North-east offers.
But as we know, the car remains the primary means of travel for tourists. Travel by car in industrial countries accounts for more than 70% of all tourists' journeys. That is why my party, the SNP, have called for more transport investment. Scotland needs world-class transport connections to attract greater numbers of tourists in the future. The roads that service the North of Scotland have been deeply under-funded, which has led to great driver frustration. At times this has caused grave accidents. If we are really serious about making Scotland a premier holiday tourist destination, we have to invest in our transport infrastructure for the benefit of tourists and locals alike. It's time that Scotland achieved its tourism potential.
