THE demise of David Flatman Ltd (known as Bargain Books or Bookworld) represents the failure of the last home-grown Scottish book retailer. For the first time Scotland is without a book retailing sector it can call its own. The rot spreads wider than that. The entire library supply sector in Scotland has collapsed. Book wholesaling in Scotland is represented by one indigenous company - Bookspeed. This company is the sole survivor of an industry which included such names as James Thin and John Smith.
While independent publishing has undergone something of a renaissance in Scotland in recent years, even its largest representatives are small in a UK context, a few shoots amidst the ruins of Nelsons, Blackie, Barthol-omews, and many others. The destruction of the publishing sector took place largely in the 80s and 90s; the destruction of our retailers, library suppliers and wholesalers has taken place entirely under the watchful eye of our executive. Job losses - genuine job loss as opposed to transfer to new owners - are around 750 to 1000.
One might argue that capitalism is a dynamic process and that with destruction comes creation. Well it hasn't. The only two major gains for these losses have been the advent - financed to the sound of trumpets by Scottish Enterprise - of two low-skill pick-and-pack Amazon warehouses in Fife and Gourock. We must be one of the few countries in the world that trumpets the replacement of first-world jobs with third-world. The destruction of hundreds of years of history has taken place in a few short years. This is not a creative or dynamic process, this is an endgame.
Perhaps all those businesses that fell had things wrong with them but there are more fundamental problems. Go to any town centre - I recommend Inverness - and you will see a litany of to let and for sale signs. Camped around them are the gleaming new retail parks where supermarkets and their like strangle the life out of our towns and cities. Yet there is no learn-ing curve as to what these places do.
These places do not welcome locally-owned business. They want chains and brands. And those chains and brands do not want local identity. They want homogenous bland product shipped out in bulk from central warehouses and bought from other bland and faceless corporations. Our councils give them a competitive advantage. You pay to park in a city but you can park for free at a supermarket.
There is a second core reason why entrepreneurship and local business is so difficult in Scotland and it lies squarely at the door of the executive. Something like 50-60% of Scottish GDP is spent by the state. Is there an active policy of engagement with local business, is there any understanding of how co-ordinated expenditure across departments can energise a sector? Is there any coherence about policy-making and expenditure?
The answer is none of the above. There are 60-page procurement docu-ments, quangos ostensibly to help us but consuming most of the resources themselves and there is that answer to everything - the dribble of subsidy.
In 10 years I have watched one of the oldest and proudest professions in Scotland die. I have heard of the letters to some of these companies from Scots who were watching part of their history die. I have heard of individuals sending money to try and stave off the inevitable and I have watched those who are meant to govern us say nothing, do nothing and hear nothing. There is only word to describe my feelings and those of many others who have fought and felt in vain. And that is contempt.
Hugh Andrew, Managing Director, Birlinn Ltd, 10 Newington Road, Edinburgh.
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