Let me ask a simple question – would you like to see a 10% increase in the hospitality sector yielding over 22,000 new jobs and adding an estimated £640 million annually of GVA to the Scottish economy, or a sector stagnant and contracting?

Hospitality is pivotal not just to our tourism industry. It is also a critical catalyst for growth and jobs, often the key to unlocking vibrant towns and villages.

So you would think we’d incentivise the sector instead of punishing it. As Mike Tyson once said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. He might have added that you don’t expect the punch to come from the government, but here we are with a rates system geared to punch.

Nick Nairn backs campaign against 'pretty impenetrable' rates system

Earlier this week the British Beer and Pub Association announced a staggering 295 pubs had closed so far this year, and 64 of them were right here in Scotland. By the end of the year they reckon 5,000 job losses and £72m in lost tax revenues. It's one of the few sectors immune from AI disruption, and yet…

Closer to home and symbolic of the state of affairs, Katie Long of Brown & Blacks, publican to our........

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