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I asked a question about Nicola Sturgeon’s special advisors today. I wanted to know, who, given her lack of business and private sector knowledge, advises her on the matter. I have found that she has a “special advisor on business, the economy and fair work”.
Stewart Maxwell is the captain of industry who fulfills this important role. And it is an important role. Developing national policy and advising a First Minister with NO experience or knowledge of business or the economy is vital for jobs, prosperity and the tax take.
So it would be reasonable to assume Stewart Maxwell, fulfilling this role, to be a man of credible, time-served business experience. Perhaps having run his own business or held senior executive roles in a large plc; something like that maybe? Let us check his cv then.
“Maxwell was born on 24 December 1963 in Glasgow, Scotland. Maxwell attended Kings Park Secondary School before graduating from Glasgow College of Technology with a BA Honours Social Sciences. He worked for Strathclyde Fire Brigade between 1993 and 2003 before being elected.”
Not a lot of business experience there then. Not a stitch of private sector experience. A read through his parliamentary career yields no further clue to a knowledge of business or the economy. Posts in justice, health and sport seem to have been his mainstays.
He is credited with having been the architect of the smoking in public places ban. Widely supported and welcomed though it was, the ban did have a detrimental impact on the pub trade as I recall. This appears to be Mr Maxwell’s most significant impact on the economy of Scotland.
Despite this stellar and effective political career, Mr Maxwell was not re-elected in the 2016 Scottish elections. The electorate preferring one Jackson Carlaw, decided it best to free Mr Maxwell to new opportunities.
Those new opportunities were not long in finding Mr Maxwell. With no experience in business, the economy and fair work, Mr Maxwell was snapped up by the SNP to be Nicola Sturgeon’s special advisor on, er, business, the economy and fair work.
Am I alone in seeing the problem here? His position costs us more than his salary. In a time when the economy faces the toughest of challenges, the SNP have special advisors on the matter without experience, knowledge or credibility.
What the SNP have done is given a job to one of the old faithful. One so poorly thought of that a dreaded Tory beat him to a list seat! One riding out his time towards retirement with a nice sinecure.
This is only one advisor I have looked into so far. I started there because the economy is so important at this time. I had hoped to find better. To find knowledge and experience advising an FM without either essential quality in this critical field.
Scotland needs and deserves better. We cannot realistically go beyond next year’s election with more government based on spin, nepotism and so lacking in the critical skills and experience these time of economic crisis desperately needs.
For Scotland’s sake, it is time for the SNP to go.
