Danny Alexander joined top Liberal Democrat candidate for Glasgow Katy Gordon at an independent whisky bottlers and suppliers to unveil the party’s export action plan.
Mr Alexander also commented on the Scottish Lib Dems’ plans to free up £1.5 billion to spend on creating 100,000 jobs, an early intervention fund, high-speed broadband, a science nation fund and a mass insulation programme, saying:
“The Scottish Lib Dems have put forward a credible and strong plan for the future of Scottish Water. This plan has the potential to be a real win win for Scotland and the UK.
“If the next Scottish Government has the political courage to take forward reform of Scottish Water, George Osborne and I will be very open to their constructive proposals.”
Launching the exports plan, Mr Alexander said:
“The Liberal Democrats Exports Action Plan will help create the conditions to grow Scotland’s exports by 50 per cent and double the number of companies who trade overseas.
“Douglas Laing & Co is a great example of a Scottish business exporting iconic Scottish whisky across the globe. We want to see more Scottish businesses building Scotland’s proud record as an exporting nation.
“Our action plan includes cutting down the confusion of quangos promoting Scotland abroad and specific funding to help those businesses wanting to export innovative or new-to-market products.”
Comments also came from the Lib Dem camp on the pending Carloway review, and on the rumoured re-write if the SNP's draft manifesto.
Commenting as Lord Carloway lays out options for what may be one of the biggest overhauls of criminal law in Scotland, Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson Robert Brown said:
“We need to be extremely cautious in this area and how we approach the very difficult issues rising out of the Cadder decision. Corroboration and the right to silence have been fundamental principles of the Scottish legal system for many years and should not be causally interfered with.
“I hope that this review will include a thorough re-examination of the SNP Government’s hasty and unnecessary emergency legislation."
And Liberal Democrat finance spokesperson Jeremy Purvis said of leaked SNP tax plans as reported yesterday in the Telegraph:
“It appears the SNP are re-writing their draft manifesto this week. They now only have a few days to make sure they publish their tax proposals in a transparent way.
“This is of course in stark contrast to the shabby way they treated the Scottish Parliament tax powers. Their manifesto next week should correct that and they should be completely open with their intentions.”
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