We welcome back doyenne of the Edinburgh arts scene Vera McFly, who this week spreads her wings around Europe. She calls up the ghost of Benjamin Franklin, wonders why Scotland isn't clamouring for a separate entry in the Eurovision Song Contest (go on, we know you watch it) and marvels as Creative Scotland takes on a new lease of life. And there's always Ailsa Craig...
Scot-Buzz getting better, bigger, bolder!
The Scot-buzz Re-launch Mark 1 last week brought another shoal of support and encouragement from well-wishers – and our mail shot is hitting new records.
Now we are driving through last week’s improvements with even more new and surprising features for your delectation.
We are delighted to welcome aboard the property, finance expert and man-about town Ken Houston as a columnist. Ken was a distinguished former personal finance editor of The Scotsman and has formidable knowledge of Scotland’s commercial property, legal and financial sectors. He kicks off with a cracker of a column on the need for public sector slim down and reform in Scotland.
We mentioned last week we had an ambition to expand our coverage into the financial sector. We turn aspiration into action this week with an outstanding blog from Philip Graves, Deputy Manager, the Scots-based Munro Fund. Philip writes about the bumpy ride was can expect from a Scottish Share Index. This is reprinted with kind permission from the excellent Munro Fund website. We recommend a visit.
We are also pleased to carry an excellent summation and critique of the Borders Light Rail project by economist Tony Mackay. This has been reprinted with kind permission from Tony’s monthly Scottish Economic Report – a service no-one with a concern for Scotland’s economy should be without.
And of course we have our regular five star commentators – Honey McBee, providing her informed and acerbic summation of the best in Scottish media and current affairs commentary – and the authoritative George Kerevan, who writes this week on latest data on company formation – Scotland’s missing Middelstand.
These are big, important issues in Scotland today. And we are proud to pursue our mission to put these where they belong - at the heart of Scots public policy debate.
All this – plus clear, succinct signposting of start-up and small business events in Scotland this week; little wonder Scot-Buzz is getting such strong supportive feedback from small businesses, top business leaders – and those who just like our upbeat and positive tone.
We don’t deny one iota of the bad news around. And we have no illusions about the time it will take for the banks to return to something like normality. But all this is known – and well covered elsewhere.
The mission of Scot-Buzz is to focus on enterprise across Scotland and highlight examples of where people are starting up and expanding their business.And the good news is that there is no shortage of entrepreneurs young and old ready and willing to give business a go.
Scot-buzz is a news platform for these efforts, a centre for guidance and advice, a quick pit-stop for political news and media commentary, a megaphone to give encouragement and a help (we hope) for Scotland’s politicians and policy wonks to get a handle on the concerns of business and explore where they can help.
