Calls have been made for an Elon Musk-like figure (dubbed ‘MacMusk’) to be hired by the Scottish Government to cut back on the SNP’s “waste” in the public sector. Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay suggested that an outside figure could be brought in to save the taxpayer millions by slashing the bloated state.
In America, President-Elect Donald Trump is set to bring the X owner into his administration in order to cut state bureaucracy and inefficiency. It comes after Musk backed his fellow entrepreneur to beat Democrat Kamala Harris in the race to replace outgoing Joe Biden.
Mr Findlay has made calls for a smaller state a central part of his new-look campaigning since taking over from Douglas Ross in the Autumn. He wants the SNP to axe its freebie culture, including the likes of the baby box and free prescriptions, and mothball some quangos which are no longer needed.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph he suggested that a business leader such as Sir Tom Hunter could take on a similar role to Musk, who will be heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He is one of Scotland’s richest men and has been outspoken about the Nats failure to grow the economy.
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We previously told how he hit out at John Swinney’s plan to spend £30m of public cash on reforming the public sector, insisting he could find some savings for free. He said: “I’m not saying go as far as Donald Trump and Elon Musk, but somebody should be looking and just say, ‘right, hang on a minute who benefits from this regulation and why is it there? Can we get rid of it? Can we simplify business?’ Then I actually want government to get out of the way.”
Mr Findlay said that anyone brought in for such a role would “probably be so staggered at the scale of waste and incompetence that it would be like shooting fish in a barrel”. He added that the First Minister lacked both the “bravery” and the “common sense” to take action, saying he was “throwing money around like a drunken sailor on leave”.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay
(Image: Getty Images)
He highlighted that Scotland “cannot continue to afford to keep growing the state with an ever shrinking tax base” and the Scottish Government’s long-standing ban on compulsory redundancies must be scrapped. He said: ” “It’s so unhealthy. Maybe we need a MacMusk, someone who would look at the blob. It doesn’t need to be drastic – it’s modest and sensible. It’s actually the right thing to do, the responsible thing to do for any government.”
To prove his point, he said that some agencies were handed money for “some folly or other” that was later axed. And because of the ban on compulsory redundancies, people who had been hired to carry out the axed project were now “protected for life.”
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Mr Findlay also suggested that one of his MSP colleagues could become the “MacMusk” or even Alasdair Locke who is his party’s chairman, as he is the founder and chairman of Motor Fuel Group, the UK’s largest owner of petrol station forecourts. He said they would perform the role of “identifying ways in which savings can be made and, not in an irresponsible way, but just the application of some business common sense”.
Scotland’s Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee said: “Through our public service reform programmes, the Scottish Government has already delivered savings of more than £200 million over the past two years. We have also delivered reductions in core Scottish Government staff levels of 3% in the past year. This work will continue.”
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