A budget for difficult times

The Scottish Parliament recently debated and passed the annual budget for the coming financial year, the first that sees spending fall in real terms since the start of devolved government.

In these difficult economic times, people have little patience for political games when it comes to funding the kind of measures that make a real difference to people’s lives. It is unfortunate that not all parties were able to resist the temptation to indulge in such antics, but people in Banff & Buchan will welcome the fact that this year’s budget was passed without the chaos that some parties created last year.

It is a budget that protects frontline services from the cuts in Scottish funds being created by the UK Government. There is funding for council tax to be frozen for a third successive year under the SNP Government, putting money back into people’s pockets at a time when they need it most, while the thresholds for the small business bonus are being increased to further help the businesses that form the lifeblood of Scotland’s economy.

There is also increased funding for training places to meet the rising demand created by those who have lost their jobs and are seeking to learn new skills, and more money for the NHS to continue its efforts to improve the health of people in Scotland.

It is a budget that is about choosing the right priorities for people in Scotland and it is one that I believe delivers for people in Banff & Buchan. It will protect jobs and livelihoods in these difficult times and I welcome its passage.

An unacceptable distortion

As a publicly financed organisation that receives generous funding from our TV licences, the BBC has a responsibility to provide impartial and balanced coverage of the issues in our society. Because of that unique responsibility it is an organisation that commands a great deal of trust, so when it fails to provide balanced coverage there is quite understandably a great deal of anger.

It is hardly surprising then that many people in Banff & Buchan will have been outraged by the recent programme, Britain’s Really Disgusting Food, shown by the BBC which claimed that the fishing industry was committing a slow suicide by over-fishing stocks to the brink of extinction.

Not only is this viewpoint entirely misleading, given that it fails to recognise the enormous strides that have been made by the Scottish fleet when it comes to conservation measures as witnessed by the signs of recovery amongst Cod stocks, but it also is one that could cause serious financial damage to a struggling industry.

Recent years have been difficult for Banff & Buchan’s fishing industry, but its viability will not be helped if it is falsely portrayed to consumers as being reckless and failing to fish sustainably. Scotland’s fishing industry has been at the forefront of efforts to make the industry more sustainable and over 50% of Scottish fisheries by value have received Marine Stewardship Council accreditation, the international Gold standard for sustainably caught fish, with more on the way. For the BBC to have failed to acknowledge the success of these efforts is completely unacceptable.

Nobody wants to secure a sustainable, profitable future for the fishing industry more than the people who work within it and I believe that the BBC owes the industry an apology for broadcasting such a ridiculously misleading programme. It has betrayed the trust that licence fee payers in Banff & Buchan have placed in it and it is time for it now to make amends.