Lewis MacDonald is Scottish Labour’s spokesperson for tourism and energy.

TOURISM

Lewis MacDonald has called for Homecoming for be better promoted.

The Homecoming advert, designed to attract tourists, was not planned to be shown abroad until Labour raised the ludicrous approach in the Scottish Parliament.

There have been real concerns that Homecoming has simply not been as effective as it could have been.

Scottish Labour wants to see a proper approach to tourism which increases the number of people coming to visit Scotland, and we want to ensure that the proper infrastructure is in place to support that.

ENERGY

Energy is a policy area which straddles Holyrood and Westminster. Scottish Labour wants to get the right balance between keeping the lights on, and massively increasing clean sources of power.

Despite SNP claims that the renewables industry would generate 16,000 new jobs over the next decade, the SNP’s Energy Minister was forced to concede that he does not have a clue how many green jobs would be forthcoming in Scotland over the next two years.

Alongside this, SNP Ministers have been forced to admit the scale of their failure on granting consent for renewable energy projects.

Since May 2007, the Scottish Government have rejected almost 1200 Mega Watts or capacity compared to only 70 MW rejected by the previous Labour administration.

Responding to the admission, Mr Macdonald said:

"This shows the scale of failure by the SNP. The chance of a renewable energy project being approved by Scottish Ministers has fallen from 95% before 2007 to less than 60% today.

"Alex Salmond and his Ministers like to talk up green energy, but fail to deliver when it matters."

Mr MacDonald is calling on the Scottish Government to back onshore and offshore wind power as the key to meeting Scotland's renewable energy targets. 

It is not enough for ministers to say they favour renewable energy; they have to begin to make the tough but necessary decisions to make it happen.   

Lewis Macdonald has also been critical of the SNP's point-blank refusal to support nuclear power, even though many environmentals who were formerly opposed now argue it needs to be part of the energy mix.