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Just this week, I spoke to the parent of a soldier who has just returned from Afghanistan and who is having considerable financial difficulties as a result of his holiday being cancelled due to the Icelandic ash cloud and banks charging to change money.
I will respond in two or three ways, if I may. First, we will bank the pitch on Pittsburgh with pitches that have been made for Seattle and other cities.
We are thinking about a five-year period, during which I suspect that interest rates will stay low—that is what the governor of the Bank of England is telling us—and corporate spreads will come down.
That is the intention behind the Scottish investment bank. Indeed, the co-investment funds that fund part of it are being deployed across Scotland at the present moment.
I got involved in local government in the early 1990s, so my experience probably pre-dates yours, Andrew. Since that time, the range of things that the Accounts Commission and the auditors, and Audit Scotland, look at has grown hugely.
When even the most successful committees look at a subject, their recommendations and conclusions are often misconceived, out of date and rapidly dismissed by Government as things that are already being dealt with.
Those making the allegations could not provide dates or places in relation to anything that happened—they could not even name the people involved—and we went as far as was possible on the basis of the information that we were given.
It is a five-year cycle for the UK, and that audit will come out some time this year or next—I will have to check the dates. We are looking at all the countries of equivalent size—Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The idea that people have to go to Aberdeen, Edinburgh or Glasgow to be educated is dated. It is important that people can earn and learn where they live, because they are much more likely to stay in the area if they do not go away to train.
Our relationship with our local communities is like nothing that I have experienced in my career to date, and the collaboration and partnership working are very strong.