Beware big promises about UK civil service jobs coming to Scotland – Angus Robertson

One of the great benefits of Scottish independence is the jobs and investment boost it will provide with government jobs located in Scotland rather than heavily concentrated in London.

Stephen Gethins has written a book, Nation to Nation: Scotland’s Place in the World, in which he outlines the advantages of independence (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

Later this week we will learn more about this in an exciting new book written by my former MP colleague Stephen Gethins: “Nation to Nation: Scotland’s Place in the World.”

He outlines the advantages that Scotland would have as an independent member of the international community, amongst which is Edinburgh becoming the capital of a sovereign state.

In comparison, the UK government knows it has a presentation problem with the number of its civil servants jobs that are based in Scotland.

Not only have these numbers been cut over recent years, but the likes of military facilities have also been closed with the loss of thousands of posts. With the rise in support for Scottish independence, Boris Johnson’s government has announced it is to allocate 1,000 jobs in Glasgow and East Kilbride.

Readers with a long memory will remember that this is exactly what the UK government promised in the 1970s when the SNP was on the rise.

Then Glasgow was set to receive 6,000 Ministry of Defence jobs based at Kentigern House, but that ended up being reduced to 1,400.

More recently the Westminster government has made great play of jobs being based at what locals are already calling the “UK Embassy” at the back of Waverley Station.

The truth is UK civil service job dispersal, especially the better-paid, more senior positions are not fairly distributed around the UK. Only with Scottish independence will we maximise the jobs, grades and opportunities in Scotland.

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