THE Labour-run Scotland Office should revive the wartime policy of holding regional meetings with politicians across the country, Fergus Ewing has argued.
The former SNP Cabinet secretary called for Ian Murray to bring in meeting with “MPs and MSPs in each part of Scotland” in the vein of Tom Johnston, who served as Scottish Secretary under Winston Churchill from 1941 to 1945.
Writing in the Inverness Courier, Ewing said Johnston was “widely regarded as the most successful Scottish secretary that there has ever been”.
He went on: “One of his innovations was to hold regional meetings with MPs, the very first one being with Highland MPs.
“I wish Ian Murray, our new Scottish secretary, well in his role and hope that he will initiate similar meetings with MPs and MSPs in each part of Scotland. I am writing to him suggesting he does likewise.”
Ewing also used his column to call for GB Energy to be headquartered in Inverness, hitting out at reports that the city has not made the shortlist.
Media reports last week claimed that Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen were in the running to be GB Energy’s base city.
Ewing said that if that was the case, “that would be a sign that Inverness is still regarded in Whitehall as a kind of backwater, and that Labour’s writ does not run north of the central belt”.
The SNP MSP argued that GB Energy should also have a focus on community ownership and community payback from energy projects.
“The new government must now require renewable developments to provide a real ownership share to communities that house and host them,” he wrote. “That will be essential to garner local support.
“Why should a community support new wind farms and grid upgrades if all the financial gains go elsewhere?
“At present the ‘going rate’ is £5000 a year per megawatt. A share of ownership gives a far more significant legacy, and then paves the way for investment for generations to come on a scale which otherwise will simply not happen.”
Ewing argued that the right moves could hugely benefit Labour, but they would benefit the Highlands and Islands more – which he said was “far, far more important than political advantage”.
A Scotland Office spokesperson said they had not yet received any communication from Ewing.
