Tourism

Lord Tanlaw Excerpts

Wednesday 24th April 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Tanlaw]

My Lords, we all thank the noble Lord, Lord Lee, for giving us the opportunity to speak on this subject. Foreign tourists and UK citizens alike are generally in agreement that it is vital that the pound sterling remains throughout the UK as it is and that the timescales throughout remain synchronised as they are, even though they are the wrong ones. However, the threat of Scottish independence has created some doubts on both these matters. I am often asked which way I will vote on independence. I say to Scottish residents that if you believe in a Scottish pound that is not underwritten by the Bank of England—I do not believe in that—the answer is to vote yes and emigrate with your savings in pounds sterling.

The noble Lord, Lord Lee, mentioned the benefit to the tourist industry in Scotland and England of switching over to single/double summer time, something which some of us have advocated for years. However, if Scotland should gain independence via the referendum and/or further devolution of other aspects of government, may I suggest that the timescale remains an excluded subject, as it is today? At first glance, it may seem quite harmless to have a different timescale in Scotland to that which applies south of the border. It would be similar, some would say, to altering one’s watch when travelling on the Eurostar to Paris. The same could be said of trains travelling from London to Edinburgh with a one hour difference. The Westminster Government are intending to spend very large sums of taxpayers’ money to build a high-speed rail link eventually linking London and Edinburgh, resulting in a much reduced travelling time. However, if an independent Scotland switched to, say, single/double summer time and Westminster stubbornly stuck to the status quo, the trains going north across the border would still take nearly as long as they do today, thus obviating the need for an expensive upgrade of the line.

Conversely, if an independent Scotland chose to remain with the status quo and Westminster went over to single/double summer time, the trains travelling north would appear to have their time reduced by an hour, thus again obviating the need for an expensive upgrade of the line. I have not chosen trains as a facetious example but one in which time change, if it is not carefully adjusted, has an effect on major capital expenditure, which affects all taxpayers. If the Scots, in their enthusiasm for independence, decide to change the timescale—they may be entitled to do that if we adjust the constitution accordingly—there will be secondary effects that will have very severe effects on our economy. Therefore, I ask for that to be taken into consideration.