The Highlands deserve a budget that finally meets our needs
The lens through which I view the budget is a critical one, not focussed on national success, but how well it serves the needs of my constituency.
At about half the size of Wales, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is the largest and most remote mainland constituency in the United Kingdom; the furthest away from the centres of decision making in London and Edinburgh. In the Highlands, the price we pay for the many things that are essential to life, such as food, heating and travel are more expensive than other parts of the UK. This, coupled with the fact that many incomes are lower than the UK average, starkly illustrates the problem that our needs are far from the minds of those in centres of power.
The one thing that concerns all of us in the Far North the most, is the prospect of our young moving away from the area to get work, and then never returning. For the 19th and much of the 20th century, depopulation was the curse of the Highlands. You only have to look at the abandoned and ruinous houses that are in sight from the road leading from Latheron to Thurso in Caithness to see the stark evidence. Where once there were lights on and the sound of children playing, now the wind moans through the ruins.
Many MPs look at the budget in a national context, and while this approach has value, it is the particular needs and vulnerabilities of my constituency that form the basis of my judgement on the budget's merits. The decision to increase taxation on whisky is likely being seen in Westminster as something merely on the booze bill, but for me these fees will just be translated back to the distilleries in some of the remotest areas. The possibility of falling sales, and what this might mean for distillery jobs, is a prospect that fills me with fear. We are now in a situation where we will have another Trump presidency in January, and a potential big increase in US tax on whisky could be very damaging for Scotland's flagship product.
My fears about rural employment have only been heightened with the employer's national insurance rise. Talking to local small businesses in my constituency, the bitter fact is that in order to balance the books, many of them will have to shed some jobs.
So, looking from very far away at London, these are just a few of my thoughts. Now, I turn my attention to Edinburgh.
For far too long, the SNP government has failed the remotest areas, such as those in my constituency. Not only has the Highland Council been left cash strapped year after year, forced to make horrific cuts to vital services, but also those services that lie to the hand of the Scottish government have suffered. In this regard, I think particularly of the National Health Service.
To put it frankly, the public services that remain in the Highlands are not adequate. We no longer have a consultant-led maternity service based in Caithness, with mothers now having to make a return journey of over 200 miles, often in terrible weather, to give birth in Inverness. Gynaecological services are at a crisis point in the north of our constituency; I know of one lady who had to wait 2 years for a hysterectomy. Can you believe this? There is now no longer a single psychiatrist based in the Far North. When you think of what this means for mental health, for young and old, you can only shudder.
Now therein lies the rub, I may be critical of the budget in some areas, but there can be no doubt that the present Labour government has shot the SNP fox. John Swinney and his cohorts were all ready to whinge about being starved of money by Westminster, their favourite dreary old song for many a year, but then… ka-pow! The Chancellor of the Exchequer has just given them an extra £3.4 billion to spend. Sitting in the Chamber when the Chancellor announced this, I could hear nine clunks behind me as nine nationalist MPs' jaws hit the deck.
The whistle has been blown on the excuse-machine called the Scottish Government, and the time has come for them to cough up and put the health service right in my constituency. On this they will be judged, and I sincerely hope we will not be found wanting.
Jamie Stone is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross since 2017.
