12 departments. The gross budget is £296 million of which half is spent on housing. Mr Sturt also explained where the money comes from ie, government grants, non-domestic rates and the Community Charge. Mr Sturt also pointed out that at present the Council has no plans to build Council houses. The visitors were particularly interested in the financial breakdown of the Council and how the Council were able to cope within tight budget controls.
The visitors met Mr Pringle, research officer, Scottish National Party, for a briefing on the policies of the Party. Mr Pringle outlined the Party policy on Scotland having Independence within Europe, and detailed social and economical changes which he felt should be implemented in Scotland. The SNP would also like an independant Scotland to form an economic partnership with the rest of the UK. The visitors were interested throughout the briefing and questioned Mr Pringle about the social and economical changes that the SNP would like to see made. Mr Pringle gave the statistics of the oil revenue which he felt had been frittered away by the two main UK parties with Scotland gaining very little benefit.
Wednesday 19 June
The visitors met Mr James, chief press officer, and Ms Holligan, economist, Royal Bank of Scotland plc. Mr James gave a briefing on the Royal Bank of Scotland giving examples of the wide range of services available to their customers. These services include mobile banks in the rural areas of Scotland, a boat bank for the islands which was superseded by an air bank operating today and the newly introduced home banking service, a voice operated system which allows you to do a number of banking functions over the telephone. Ms Holligan gave an economic breakdown of the public and private sectors in Scotland. The visitors were very interested in the range of services the Royal Bank of Scotland could offer its customers both directly and indirectly, through its worldwide communications network. The visitors were pleased to learn that the Bank is extending its branches and contacts throughout the world.
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The visitors then met Mr Cowan, regional secretary, Lothian Regional Council for a briefing on the role and structure of the Council and pointed out that local government structure is at present under review. Mr Cowan gave statistics on the Council including the number employees which total some 25,000. There are 49 seats on the Regional Council of which 34 are held by Labour, 12 Conservative, 2 SDLP and 1 SNP. Regional elections occur every four years with last having taken place in 1990. The visitors were interested in the role the Regional Council played and enquired about the types of and frequency of the Council meetings. The visit was then rounded off by a visit to Edinburgh Castle.
CONCLUSION
The visitors fully enjoyed their programme. They were very astute and grasped the structure and role of the Party politics as well as local government in Scotland. The visitors were particularly interested, on the political side, and the parties policies for the future. The SDP policy of introducing a pollution tax was one example which received discussion.
The visitors questions were both relevant and perceptive.
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