Scottish Parliament
Contents
Founding Principles
Business friendly activities
Scottish Parliament Business Exchange
Scottish Parliament Business Exchange
Business in the Parliament
- Scottish Parliament held a 'Business in the Parliament' conference. Over 100 business delegate trooped in and sat in the elected members seats. Amongst the delegates were all the key peak business associations representing big business including the CBI, the Chemical Industries Association, the Scottish Food and Drink Federation and the Scottish BCSD. The press release from the parliament announced that the delegates were 'the people driving Scotland's economy.' ('SCOTLAND'S BUSINESS PEOPLE TAKE THEIR SEATS IN PARLIAMENT' Parliamentary News Release, 026/2004, 22 April 2004. [1])
- The trick here is to convince yourself that it is the business class not the workers who create the value in production. Otherwise you might come to the conclusion that the Parliament spin doctors are in the business of issuing corporate ideology dressed up as neutral official information. The final insult to the Parliament's founding principles of openness was that the discussion sessions in the conference were held in private. Pro-business assumptions amongst policy makers and lobbying by corporations result in reflex secrecy.
Futures Forum
Science Information Service
Scottish Parliament Pension Scheme
Tobacco investments
- MINISTERS responsible for introducing Scotland’s smoking ban have been accused of hypocrisy after it emerged they are paying into a pension firm that has £126m invested in the world’s biggest cigarette company.
- Jack McConnell, the first minister, and Andy Kerr, the health minister, can expect a lucrative payout from investment firm Baillie Gifford, which owns 3m shares in US-based Altria, makers of Marlboro cigarettes.
- The value of Altria shares has risen by 230% in the past five years. Parliament officials believe the £10m pension fund the firm runs for all Scottish ministers and MSPs is directly invested in tobacco firms.
- McConnell is also expected to benefit from a Labour party pension from his time as Scottish general secretary.
- The Sunday Times has learnt that the £31m pension scheme for party officials is run by UBS Global Asset Management, which has a £281m shareholding in Altria, which produces more than 25 brands of cigarettes.
- Since 1997, when Labour came to power, UBS has invested fundholders’ money in five of the world’s biggest tobacco firms, including BAT, Imperial Tobacco and Seita.
- Three months ago, the company sponsored a conference run by Imperial Tobacco, the makers of Embassy cigarettes which claimed the Scottish smoking ban was unnecessary and that most people would prefer limited restrictions.[2]
Other firms in which investments are held include Omnicom the communications conglomerate which owns three of the largest PR firmms in the world, including Fleishman Hillard which has an active lobbying office in Edinburgh targetting the Scottish Parliament.[3]
Resources
Scottish Parliament Pension Scheme List of Holdings 2006, Released under the Freedom of Information Act. (3MB)
References
- ^ SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT SCIENCE INFORMATION SCHEME LAUNCHED Parliamentary News Release, 055/2003, Thursday 18 September 2003
- ^ Jason Allardyce Ministers ‘investing in cigarettes’ The Sunday Times - Scotland, March 19, 2006
- ^ Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor MSP pension scheme linked to Iraq scandal, Sunday Herald, 28 May 2006.
- ^ Scottish Parliament Pension Scheme List of Holdings 2006, Released under the Freedom of Information Act. (3MB)
