It's the economy, stupid!

It's a pity Alex Salmond doesn't read this blog - if he did, he would have known that the renewables industry only provides 11,000 jobs in Scotland, thus saving him another embarrassing climbdown. The First Minister also doesn't seem to listen to Radio Scotland's Business Scotland program on a Sunday morning. Calton would have thought that that would be mandatory listening for any politician keen to help the Scottish economy. Perhaps Salmond thinks he has more important things to think about although Calton finds it hard to imagine what. Standard Life are axing 130 Edinburgh jobs, Vion are pulling out of Scotland throwing more jobs in the meat processing industry in doubt (in addition to the hundreds going at Broxburn) and, while the announcement that Areva is bringing turbine manufacturing jobs to Scotland is welcome, we'll need to wait and see just how many actually materialise. The biggest issue on most voters' minds is jobs. Is it too much to ask that our First Minister also makes it his top priority?