Working 9 to 5

OK, so I've still not got this "Scotland is the worst wee country in the world" thing out of my hair. My thoughts have moved on to the dependency nature regarding jobs in Scotland and just why such a high percentage are paid for (directly or indirectly) by the state.

Of all the millstones holding Scotland back (and there probably aren't that many) I think this is the heaviest one and is something that hopefully the SNP can redress over the next few years. I do think Labour had a decent stab at it with encouraging entrepreneurs and the well-meaing Scottish Enterprise, but maybe it's the drastic drop in business rates that will do the trick. Time will tell.

Anyway, it got me thinking about people I know around me and where their wage actually comes from:

Family: 1 government department (with 2 recent temp jobs for a Quango and Scotrail), 1 private company with a big contract with the Scottish Executive therefore lion's share of his salary is publicly funded, 1 works directly for the Scottish Executive, 1 other works in local government education and finally one for a 100% private solicitors company.

So 4 out of 5 with regard family.


Close friends: 1 for Scottish executive, 1 for an accounts company with a heavy load of work for Scottish councils/public sector work, 1 for an Engineering company that has a lot of public contracts, 1 for SportScotland (for how much longer who knows!) and several students who receive funding from various bodies (not sure if this is publicly funded or not).


As for myself, I'm soon to be working for one of the Big 4 based in Edinburgh, with Scottish companies, across various sectors, so as long as I can add some value (as I slip into cheesy business-speak here) then I like to think I'm doing my bit to redress the balance.


So, ok, not the largest sample in the world but even in my own small social circles there seems to be a fairly heavy dependency on public money to earn a living. The business men and women need to get cracking here and start growing and we need to help them.


"Buying Scottish" is one way to go about fighting our own corner but another bonfire of the quangos and further streamlining from the SNP would be welcome.


It's just a question of whether the Nationalists have the courage to make the right moves, and whether the opposition parties are able to take a broad enough view to let them...