EXCLUSIVE: The Donald Macleod Column

Scotland’s Managed Decline: It’s Time to Face the Facts

EXCLUSIVE by Donald MacLeod MBE

Well, well, well – Sir Tom Hunter, one of Scotland’s most successful entrepreneurs – a man who’s built businesses, created jobs, and risked his own capital – has finally said what many of us have been shouting for years: Scotland is in a managed decline.

And not even a well-managed one.

He’s worried. We all should be.

In a damning new report from the Hunter Foundation and Oxford Economics, Sir Tom, pictured above, lays it bare: Scotland is no longer pro-business.

Our economy is stagnating. And unless something changes, we’re on track to fall even further behind.

He’s calling for bold reform – lower taxes, a more enterprise-friendly climate, and a real plan to fix our crumbling infrastructure. He’s right.

Let’s start with the basics.

Our NHS is stretched to breaking point. Our education system, once world-class, is slipping in the rankings. And our economy? Limping like a knackered racehorse.

Major infrastructure projects are a case study in mismanagement. The A9 and A96 dualling schemes? Delayed and over budget.

The MV Glen Rosa and MV Glen Sannox ferry fiasco has ballooned to an eye-watering £460 million – more than four times the original estimate.

That’s not just financially disastrous. It’s reputational damage, especially to Scotland’s once-proud shipbuilding industry.

And what’s the government response? Slogans. Spin. Ideology over execution.

Sir Tom highlights one of the most controversial failures: the weaponisation of Net Zero.

It’s being used not to future-proof Scotland, but to punish those trying to live and work here.

I warned two years ago that without a properly integrated public transport system in place, policies like Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) would backfire.

I called it then – a Low Economy Zone. That’s exactly what our major city centres have become.

The result? Plummeting footfall. Shuttered shops. A nightlife in crisis. We were promised green renewal – we got empty streets, bankrupt businesses, and the sound of silence after dark.

Glasgow’s city centre isn’t thriving. It’s surviving. Barely. The subway shuts early. Buses are unreliable. Taxis cost a fortune. And instead of fixing these systems, we’re banning vehicles and fining drivers.

Worse still? Pollution levels haven’t improved. Glasgow’s LEZ has already cost over £54 million – and the meter’s still running. Glasgow City Council is still renting compliance vehicles at £2,000 a day. That’s not environmental leadership – that’s policy failure.

And now, Scottish households face a £750 million annual bill for the next 25 years to meet climate targets we’re not even on track to achieve, according to the Climate Change Committee. A “Just Transition”? Aye, just a joke.

I’ve spent £140,000 of my own money on three heat pumps—without grants or assistance. They broke down so often I was left freezing. In the end? I had to install a gas boiler.

So if anyone wants to question my commitment to going green, they should question the policy, not the people trying to make it work.

Scotland contributes about 0.08% to global emissions. And yet we’re flogging motorists and small businesses like eco-sinners, while the world’s biggest polluters get a pass. That’s not a climate policy. It’s a climate con.

Our government and councils have become increasingly detached from economic and social reality.

Many seem more interested in controlling lives through ideology than improving them through evidence.

When it comes to Net Zero, too many accept unproven claims without question, while demanding irrefutable proof before considering any inconvenient truth.

That kind of intellectual lockdown stifles innovation, investment, and genuine progress.

If Scotland is to move forward, we need to take the foot off the ideological accelerator and open the door to rational, evidence-led debate.

Sir Tom Hunter isn’t just waving a red flag – he’s sounding an airhorn.

He’s calling for lower taxes, a pro-enterprise agenda that attracts jobs, innovation and ambition, and an end to the self-defeating copycat policies that are draining our economy and eroding our confidence.

He’s absolutely right.

Here’s the deal: ditch the dogma. Scrap the fantasy targets. Fix the transport system before banning half the vehicles on the road.

And most of all, start listening to the people who build, employ, and invest – not those scribbling slogans on PowerPoint slides.

Because if this is what they call a “transition,” then heaven help us if we ever arrive.