New Statesman Scotland
"The Scottish Institute for Enterprise" sounds like an entity that should have been devised under Margaret Thatcher and be busy weaning Scots off the subsidy culture. In fact, it is the creation of Tony Blair's ministerial team. Its destiny may be to do little more than issue techno-blather about the internet and the need to commercialise research.
The new quango is sponsored by a grant of £4m. It is meant to create a link, bridge, conduit and pool between the universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Dundee. Scotland's other 7f universities are not being allowed to play.
We may be witnessing one of those occasions when a word changes meaning. Scottish Enterprise, the greater public investment agency, is in the subsidy business, with a few add-ons for retraining young people who emerge from Scottish schools barely literate or numerate. Enterprise used to define ventures done outside the aegis of the state, but it now means state emulation of market activity.
The new public agency will "promote the uptake of entrepreneurial education amongst student and staff", and - what a paragon of virtue - "improve the infrastructure and number of technology start-ups in Scotland".
It may be benevolent baloney. Entre-preneurs are traders, inventors and risk-takers. If Scotland wants to nurture these mysterious qualities, it should invite more immigrants. The world of education is far removed from price signals, competition and the vulgar ideas of trade. Adam Smith, patron saint of free markets, would scoff at these cosy follies.
Meanwhile, the Royal Society of Edinburgh is busy announcing that it is no longer going to be the fusty and smug club for Scottish men of science. It is going to perform the same functions as the Scottish Enterprise Institute and smother academics with more talk about the internet and the need to match ideas to money.
The society's new president, Sir William Stewart, was formerly chief scientific advisor to Thatcher and John Major. He can't be faulted on his expertise, but has he ever taken a commercial risk? Has he gambled his home on an idea? We are not told.
This fashion for talking techno-balls under the cosy claim of its being "enterprise" is the doing of Henry McLeish, who criticises Scottish Enterprise for not applying enough Scottish academic excellence to new commercial projects. The capitalists are going to invent a new word to describe what they do. "Enterprise" has been captured by quango-man. Smith's word was "undertaker", but that word has also altered its meaning.
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