Blue Monday passed this week with the Christmas and Hogmanay holidays seeming like an age ago as business returned to normal at Holyrood.
The Scottish Government issued a follow-up to its ‘Scotland in Europe’ paper on Monday which included an analysis which shows that if the UK fails to remain in the Single Market or secure a free trade agreement with the EU (the No Deal scenario), Scotland’s GDP will be around £12.7bn lower by 2030 than it would be under continued EU membership – a loss equivalent to £2,300 per year for each person in Scotland.
The Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Constitution Committee confirmed last week that it will not advise the Scottish Parliament to consent to the EU Withdrawal Bill unless the contested Clause 11 is amended. The UK Government missed the deadline to do this in the House of Commons which drew comments of frustration across the parties, including the Scottish Conservatives who want to see agreement reached on the issue in Holyrood. Speaking on the Sunday Politics show about the government’s new analysis and the EU Withdrawal Bill, Mike Russell, the Scottish minister responsible for Brexit, confirmed that legislative consent would be given once this clause is amended. Other than getting the Bill through the Lords where the government has no majority, if agreement on Clause 11 can be reached in the interests of preserving the integrity of the devolution settlement, this would be one hurdle crossed for the UK government.
Dominating the news headlines this week however, was the significant snow fall that hit Scotland’s Lowlands. Scotland’s road gritting team had a viral hit on the release of its Gritter tracker app which allowed motorists to know where the imaginatively named gritters such as Sir Andy Flurry, Grittallica and Gritty Gritty Bang Bang, were live on the network much to most people’s amusement. However, not even the great Luke Snowalker could save the Transport Minister from having to apologise to motorists who got stuck in their cars on the M74 overnight on Tuesday. It was a similar repeat to the chaos that engulfed the Scottish Government in 2010 after record snowfall led to the closure of the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh and the resignation of then Transport Minister, Stewart Stevenson. This time however, it looks as though Humza will survive due to his coordinated response to the crisis since.
At the end of this week in Holyrood, MSPs debated the posthumous economic contribution made by Robert Burns. An estimate made over a decade ago found that Scotland’s national bard made over £157m every year through tourism and hospitality. MSPs concluded that more needs to be done in order to maximise Burns’ potential and called for a new analysis to be done to so that future work can be targeted to achieve this.
Happy Burns night to those celebrating over the coming week!