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About Us

SCOT-BUZZ: WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE STAND FOR

Welcome to Scot-Buzz. I’m Bill Jamieson and I’ve launched Scot-Buzz to encourage business start-up and investment in Scotland.

It’ll bring you news and instant analysis on key business and economic data - retail sales, business confidence surveys, Scottish GDP and public finance data – together with practical help and support for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

Scot-Buzz will also give you sharp and incisive commentary on business and current affairs. Regular features will include a rolling diary of key dates for business, with blogs by guest writers such as George Kerevan and Erikka Askeland as well as my own commentary,

There will be a regular review of the best (and worst) in the Scottish press penned by the unsparing and incisive Honey McBee.

I will use mischief and humour where appropriate. But my purpose is serious. Scot-Buzz has one unswerving commitment. This is to champion Scotland’s SME sector and to pursue campaigns that put business first.

Many in Scotland pay lip service to the SME sector. But despite years of verbal commitment, our business formation rate still trails that of the UK overall. And we have a problem growing medium sized businesses into tomorrow’s corporate giants.

This has to change.

I’ve been a business journalist for almost 40 years, in the City of London and here in Scotland.  I’ve covered booms and busts, stock market surges and slides, beleaguered Bank governors and chancy chancellors.

Over this period we’ve struggled with crisis and adversity. No strategy or ‘budget for growth’ ever seems to work, or work for long.

But there is one lesson I have learnt. And it is backed up with a ton of research. Time and again it’s the small business sector that has led this country out of recession.

Small firms are great business drivers. They are adaptable, dynamic, innovative and opportunistic. Truly, without a thriving SME sector, our chances of getting out of recession are slim indeed.

Here in Scotland, while there is much room for improvement, the small business sector is formidable. Yet it is often overlooked by politicians and commentators.  

According to Scottish government statistics, we have more than 296,000 small firms.  Of this total, 78,000 have between two and 10 staff. Together they employ almost 300,000 – about a seventh of all private sector employment in Scotland. 

Firms with between two and ten staff account for 98 per cent of all Scottish businesses and employ more than 573,000 – between a quarter and a third of all private sector employment.

That’s a powerful base on which to build. And build we must. Because our economy cannot move into a sustained and lasting recovery without a major revival in business formation, investment and expansion.

Addressing this problem is complex, and achieving this revival far from easy. But it must be vigorously pursued.

Confidence is the first and immediate priority for business.

This makes it all the more imperative that the environment for Scotland and the UK is as friendly and supportive for enterprise as possible. .  

For business to flourish we need to be vigilant against the creep of frustrating and effort-sapping regulatory intrusion. In particular, business should not be saddled with needless burdensome paperwork on the government’s behalf.

Business also needs a planning environment that helps to promote investment, expansion and jobs.

Scot-Buzz will seek to put these concerns at the heart of Scottish public discussion and policy-making.

Vigilance is also needed on business taxation. Scot-Buzz will campaign for a significant and sustained reduction in taxation and in particular taxation of employment.

For too long political debate in Scotland has been dominated by the concerns of the public sector and the advancement, directly or indirectly, of public sector interests.

This needs to change. The enterprise sector must have a voice at the centre of political life and have its concerns treated with at least equal seriousness as those of local authorities, public sector interests and government administration.

I support more powers for the Scottish parliament. I believe that people in Scotland should have more responsibility for raising the money that is spent by government. The requirement to raise finance and to be responsible for the interest and repayment of public debt is the greatest sanction on the relentless growth of public expenditure.

Across government and public administration there is waste and inefficiency.  More attention needs to be paid to public sector productivity to ensure we get maximum bang for the public buck.

At the same time pay levels and the culture of annual bonus awards at the top as part of regular entitlement needs to be brought under control.

Here, too, Scot-Buzz will have much to say.

We cannot pursue these aims without active support and encouragement from supporters of all parties and none.

In the coming weeks we will publish guest articles from leading business people, policy analysts and commentators. I am keen to hear your feedback; your ideas and suggestions will keep the website on its toes and augment and improve its coverage. And, yes, we appreciate your criticism, too.

You can contact me directly on [email protected], or through our admin team at [email protected].

For the moment Scotbuzz is a free website and service. Our immediate priority is to build a presence and a following. In due course we will build financial support by advertising and sponsorship.

We hope you will sign up for our regular email alerts when new material is posted on the website. And spread the word.

Welcome aboard!

Bill Jamieson

Founder and Editor, Scot-Buzz.