So goes today's front page of the Evening Express, following last night's public meeting organised by my colleagues Anne Begg and Frank Doran.
Beneath the vociferous debate and Ian Wood bashing, I was struck by some gaping holes in the economic argument. The majority of the funding will come from a public sector loan, repaid through 'an increase in business rates'. The square is designed to attract businesses to city and keep them here, but won't whacking up business rates put people off? Or does Sir Ian mean an increase in the number of businesses, not the rates? Will a huge Red Square sized square really attract more businesses?
Questions, questions. Perhaps more worrying was how the meeting revealed yet again that city's business leaders are still living a future oil industry fantasy. They believe by making Aberdeen a more attractive place to live and do business, the main service companies will continue to base themselves here to support exploration and production in other counties (this is why the larger runway at Aberdeen airport is also important to Sir Ian). But these business leaders should know more than anyone how businesses follow their customer!
If you had a gas leak, would you call a plumber from Glasgow? If you're drilling in Brazil and your reservoir pressure is dropping, are you going to get an engineer in from Rio or Aberdeen? Geography aside, most national oil companies put 'local content' conditions in their contracts. Sir Ian Wood knows this. All the business leaders in ACSEF know this. Why are they pretending?
Beneath the vociferous debate and Ian Wood bashing, I was struck by some gaping holes in the economic argument. The majority of the funding will come from a public sector loan, repaid through 'an increase in business rates'. The square is designed to attract businesses to city and keep them here, but won't whacking up business rates put people off? Or does Sir Ian mean an increase in the number of businesses, not the rates? Will a huge Red Square sized square really attract more businesses?
Questions, questions. Perhaps more worrying was how the meeting revealed yet again that city's business leaders are still living a future oil industry fantasy. They believe by making Aberdeen a more attractive place to live and do business, the main service companies will continue to base themselves here to support exploration and production in other counties (this is why the larger runway at Aberdeen airport is also important to Sir Ian). But these business leaders should know more than anyone how businesses follow their customer!
If you had a gas leak, would you call a plumber from Glasgow? If you're drilling in Brazil and your reservoir pressure is dropping, are you going to get an engineer in from Rio or Aberdeen? Geography aside, most national oil companies put 'local content' conditions in their contracts. Sir Ian Wood knows this. All the business leaders in ACSEF know this. Why are they pretending?
