§ 6. Mr. Gordon Campbellasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the latest position reached in relation to implementation of the White Paper on the Scottish Economy published in January, 1966.
§ 50. Mr. MacArthurasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a White Paper setting out the progress that has been made towards meeting the employment targets published in The Scottish Economy, Command Paper No. 2864.
54. Earl of Dalkeithasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will now make an interim progress report on the implementation of the 1966 White Paper on the Scottish Economy.
§ Mr. RossI refer hon. Gentlemen to my replies to the hon. Members for Moray and Nairn (Mr. Gordon Campbell) and Perth and East Perthshire (Mr. MacArthur) on 23rd October.—[Vol. 770, c. 1268–9, 1260.]
§ Mr. CampbellWill the Secretary of State now be honest with Scotland and admit, as with the National Plan, that the assumptions have changed, that little growth has taken place and that the results so far, especially with jobs, are very different from the targets?
§ Mr. RossWe hear all that every week. The hon. Member will not look facts in the face. If he would even read this morning's Press he would have seen the report of Sir Robert Maclean, the Chairman of the Scottish Industrial Estates Corporation, in which he points out that he has been letting factories at the rate 1503 of one a week over the last year. If he reads that, the hon. Member will appreciate that we have considerably changed the whole pattern and basis of Scottish industry.
§ Mr. MacArthurThe right hon. Gentleman will not recognise the fact which is staring him in the face—that employment in Scotland has dropped by about 30,000 people since the publication of the notorious Plan, compared with a forecast of an increase of 60,000 jobs by 1970. In the light of that, will he not leave this mood of total and unacceptable complacency and get on with the job of improving employment prospects in Scotland?
§ Mr. RossI assure the hon. Member that there is no complacency on this side of the House. The successful efforts which we have been making to get new industry in Scotland are an indication of that.
Earl of DalkeithWhat steps is the right hon. Gentleman trying to take to bring back to Scotland some of the 168,000 net emigrants who have gone from Scotland during his period of office?
§ Mr. RankinDo away with landlords.
§ Mr. RossI assure the hon. Member that if he looks at the most recently published figures for net emigration he will find that they are the best since about 1950. If the hon. Member had shown the same interest in this subject while his party was allowing this emigration to go on without doing anything about it,
I should feel better satisfied by his questions.
§ Mr. WoodburnWill my right hon. Friend be very careful about the idea of bringing back all the Scottish emigrants, since about 20 million of them are said to be abroad? Is he aware that at this moment it is impossible, and for some time it has been impossible, to get skilled engineers to fill the jobs which are open in Scotland for them as well as for many other workers?
§ Mr. RossMy right hon. Friend puts the situation into proper perspective. I thought for a moment that he was about to tell me that most of the emigrants went from the Buccleuch Estates.