The Scottish Government ’s new economy secretary yesterday thanked businesses and workers for their sacrifices during lockdown.
Kate Forbes acknowledged that putting public health first had come at a cost.
But some sectors of the economy have done significantly better out of the upheaval of the last 14 months than others.
Taxi drivers and operators are among the worst hit. Demand for their services evaporated for much of last year.
While millions were dished out to prop up railway and bus operators, the support offered to cabbies looked small beer in comparison.
In many rural parts of the country they are the realistic public transport option.
The SNP promised it would deliver further support for taxis within 100 days of being re-elected.
Forbes confirmed yesterday that drivers could get a second grant of £1500, while operators could get up to £10,000.
But unions believe that simply doesn’t go far enough.
They reckon the small print means that smaller operators – those that own a handful of cars – could end up with less than £5000 or as little as £1000.
Unite has called for all operators to receive £10,000, irrespective of size.
The union believes the support on offer falls short of what was promised.
It certainly doesn’t look enough to support an industry, already on its knees, in the long term.
We trust the Scottish Government will continue to speak with drivers and operators to assess what they need to make it through a pandemic that still has no end date.
Pay a fair share
Most of us have spent more time browsing the internet than ever before this last year.
That means we’ve also made lots more money for the few tech giants that dominate the online world.
The likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon have an iron grip on the digital advertising market and make billions as a result.
It’s almost impossible not to use their services in the 21st century.
So you’d think the least such companies could do in return would be to pay an appropriate level of tax in the countries where they operate.
But campaign group TaxWatch estimates eight tech giants could have made around £9.6billion profits on the sales they generated in Britain in 2019.
In reality, they paid just £300million in corporation tax.
It’s up to the UK Government to set tax levels and ensure firms pay their way.
It’s high time they made the tech giants pay a fair share.
