Give us a break Nicola.

This week's headlines featured the latest depressing pronouncement from Nicola Sturgeon. According to the SNP supremo, the "common sense" time for another independence referendum is Autumn 2018. Whether this is what she has really decided to do, or whether it is more hyperbole for her troops in advance of their Spring conference remains to be seen.


I find this depressing because of the continuing instability it creates for business in Scotland. I can't be alone in thinking that business deserves a bit of stability. Some relief from the restlessness and unease that political uncertainty creates in those thinking of investment. Isn't that common sense? Unless you follow the school of thought that these awful business types, who must of course be evil Tories (etc), have had it good for too long?


Too good for too long? Chance would be a fine thing and not exactly as it's felt at the coal face.


Ms Sturgeon's Autumn 2018 date will fall a decade since we started to feel the impact of the global financial crisis. Unease had been spreading since 2007 when the term "subprime mortgages" started to appear in news reporting. But things really started to bite in 2008. The crisis became full blown on 15th September 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank. What followed was a frightening period for everyone, almost regardless of the profession you were engaged in (other than insolvency practitioners.........).


Everyone in business will have their own recollection of how the crash impacted upon them. For myself, as a consulting engineer, the effects of the crash first manifested with contracts being put on
hold. For a period, I was scared to answer the phone in case it was another client looking to halt or cancel a project completely. It all happened very quickly; over a period of a few months, my forward fee forecast evaporated, almost in front of my eyes.


No one knew how long it was going to last, but fairly quickly, my team of engineers and technicians had to be shrunk. Some were short-term contract staff who we had to let go, and some were moved into a different section of the business. Our company was actually luckier than many because part of our workload was in the brewing and distilling industry. Our whisky clients were ramping up production and storage capacity in order to lay down stock for expanding overseas markets. So the jobs of some of the people who had been working with me on the rapidly disappearing residential and commercial property development market, were saved by redeployment. My running joke in the face of adversity was that strong alcohol was getting us through the recession; gallows humour I think that is called. It was part of a facade though, during a very upsetting and worrying period.


2009 and 2010 didn't prove much respite. In fact, they got worse. For many years we had undertaken the engineering design work for Applecross Properties, the Edinburgh based, high-end, residential developer. At the height of the recession in 2009, the rug was pulled from their feet by the Bank of Scotland. Shortly after, the same fate befell Kenmore Properties, another of my clients. So projects that had initially been put on hold were gone completely. It was no longer a case of holding on until things got better.


The next couple of years were tough and it was really into 2012 before we started to feel a degree of confidence returning. Whilst not necessarily expanding, businesses like ours were stabilising and life "normalising" again. This respite was to prove short-lived however. The excessively long lead in to
the Scottish independence referendum was quickly upon us, bringing with it new threats anduncertainty.


Surely Scotland's most joyous and civic of referendums was great for business I hear you say? Maybe if you were a supplier of flags and aluminium lapel badges perhaps. But for many trying to make a pound otherwise, it just wasn't what we needed in the aftermath of the worst recession in living memory. The independence referendum brought fresh uncertainty for the business community. In my industry, risk averse investors became anxious and the closer to the vote we got, the more decisions
were postponed. There were several examples of deals and contracts which involved "referendum
clauses" whereby transactions could be cancelled had Scots decided to leave the UK. It really wasn't funny.


From my perspective, the result of the 2014 referendum was a welcome one. Others were hugely disappointed but the result was decisive. Uncertainty was over; we knew where we were going, now we could really get back to business right? Well, kind of, for a bit, until we got the EU referendum out of the way. That was to be a formality of course, obviously we'd vote to stay and the good times would be within touching distance again.


I don't think I need say too much about what actually happened next; memories are recent and vivid. As it happens I'm not convinced Brexit will be the disaster that some predict and some want (yes, you there at the back Ms Sturgeon).  But the whole episode has been yet another unsettling and unpredictable one for Scottish (and indeed UK) business. We are where we are however. We are leaving the EU and now the decision is taken, we have to knuckle down and get on with it.


Getting to my point (you may be glad to hear), I really do believe that we have been through enough instability and uncertainty. Having been put through the mill since 2008, the thought of having another independence referendum in Scotland seems an extraordinary act of self harm. This week, Andrew Wilson, leader of the SNP's own Growth Commission has admitted the economic prospectus presented to us in the run up to 2014 was false. Only the most fevered of cybernat would now deny that the economic circumstances an independent Scotland would face would be, at best, difficult. At   the end of the day, we Scots are not fools and given  another "opportunity to reduce our standard of living", I expect a result broadly in line with that of 2014 would be forthcoming. Ms Sturgeon is no fool and must surely realise this too. On that basis, why on earth does she feel the need to put us through more uncertainty and instability? Eight years of turmoil are not enough perhaps, she wants to go for the "ten in a row" maybe?


While this may well read as a tale of woe, most business people are naturally positive and resilient. I like to think that I am too. "We get knocked down but we get up again" as the song goes. But it isn't easy and after a while people could be forgiven for starting to wonder if there is really any point. The anxiety around this lack of stability may become too much for some. Coupled with the fact Scotland is now the highest taxed part of the UK there has to come a point when entrepreneurs/ business people think its just too hard here and not worth the effort.


I haven't written this seeking sympathy. No, not sympathy, but some understanding perhaps and a plea for business to be considered and heard by our political masters. Think on the years between the financial crash and Ms Sturgeon's "common sense" timing for another divisive referendum:

• Lehman Brothers collapse - September 2008
• The depression, following the financial crash - 2009 to 2012
• Scottish independence referendum - September 2014
• UK Government Elections - May 2015
• Scottish Government Elections - May 2016
• EU referendum - June 2016
• Scottish independence referendum Mark II - September 2018?

That's a decade of uncertainty. A quarter of a career.


I wonder why the SNP cannot see that we've been through enough already. If only they could see that Scotland's fortunes would be best served by entrepreneurs and the wider business community being given political stability. If only they understood that it is this which will create the chance of growth, jobs and an increased tax take; that could reduce our deficit and go some way to help fund our failing education and health services. That's what is needed to start driving up our standard of living. The polls suggest that there is limited appetite for another referendum amongst ordinary Scots. It seems that the general population and business communities are of the same mind. A second referendum really is the very last think we want or need.


If you are listening Ms Sturgeon, will ye no' haud yer wheesht an' gie us a break?