Scotland, England? (Daddy, Chips?)

All this talk about Berwick-Upon-Tweed becoming a part of Scotland again (The town has changed hands between the two nations at least 13 times) is typical of the media driven political world in which it's our joy to live.

According to a 'referendum' for Monday's ITV1 Tonight programme, 1,182 voters in favour of becoming part of Scotland and 775 in favour of staying in England. Now that is clearly a 'vote' in favour but I wonder if it would stay that way if a real vote was taken . A vote in which all the pros and cons were considered in a more thoughtful and less simplistic way. Particularly when it's considered how much it will cost to make all these changes, and who is going to pay for them?

According to the survey it was better financed public services, including free personal health care for the elderly, which were the main reasons for a pro-Scottish Berwick. However, how will that really shake down if suddenly the perceived advantages of being part of Scotland were to change? We can assume that Berwick-U-T will become part of the Scottish Borders. How will they like being administered from Newtown St Boswells - it's almost 50 miles away? Already the focus of Scottish Borders Council is very 'central Borders centric', will this make any difference? Could it even put up council charges for the rest of us who live in the Borders?

It's a Scottish SNP MSP that is behind the current talk and of course it suits their purpose well to try and highlight how much better 'living in Scotland' is. But, most of what is perceived as being better was as a result of the Labour administration and may well not be deliverable in the long term.

Tourism Tinkering with the Targets

VisitScotland’s latest attempt to prove their worth is as an empty a plan as they’ve ever conceived. In a speech today to the Scottish Tourism Forum in Dundee, according to the Scotsman Philip Ripple the organization’s Head will describe a plan to attract higher-spending tourists to Scotland that will (hopefully) see one in ten visitors spending an extra £250 during their holiday by 2015.

According to the Riddle ‘encouraging tourists to stay longer or visit more attractions will be among the most important ways of growing Scottish tourism by 50 per cent over the next eight years. A key part of his plan is to generate an extra £9 per visitor per day by "cross-selling" techniques such as serving locally sourced food in restaurants or selling local crafts in cafes. VisitScotland also believes the industry can make 12 per cent extra by filling more hotel beds during the low season from November to May.

"There is no reason why we can't aspire to the success of countries like Switzerland in realizing high returns from the delivery of high quality. VisitScotland also hopes to make more money from business tourists who come to Scotland for conferences.

This is the latest smoke and mirrors scam from the redundant and moribund VisitScotland who try to blind us all with targets and figures. The fact is that this is not a measurable target and because they are falling way short of where they need to be on actual visitor numbers this is their attempt at fudging the figures. They are a discredited organization that needs to address the fundamentals not tinker with the targets.