Challaid city council convener Morag Blake today gave a speech to the Morgan Institute, the group representing business leaders in the city, in which she outlined the progress Challaid has made since the Liberal Party took control of the council in the 2015 elections. Speaking after the latest economic figures showed the Challaid economy back in growth, albeit at a slower than predicted rate, she made it clear that not only has the city changed, but the expectations for the city have too. Below is council leader Blake’s speech.
“First of all, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for having me here today to address the Morgan Institute, a group whose tireless work to promote and develop business opportunities, and with it employment, in Challaid I have always had the utmost respect for. I’m sure you will all want to join me in thanking Lamya Khan for her running of the institute and all the staff here at Morgan Hall, a most wonderful setting for this event.
When I was invited to speak to you on the theme of Challaid’s economic journey my mind raced back to Barton Secondary and Mr. Smith’s history class. I thought of Captain MacDougall being put in a rowboat in the North Atlantic by the crew of his ship after trying to swindle them, and I thought of Jack MacCoy, hanged on Stac Voror for his theft of the city’s money, or Joseph Gunn being sent to Panama for his. Our city has a history of holding to account those in control of the finances, and I find it serves me well to remember it all.
All joking aside, there are indeed valuable lessons for us to learn from our economic history, where we have come from informing where we are going. When we talk about Challaid’s culture we frequently talk about our language, our great writers, our role in the world, love of the sea and our sport. What we rarely talk about is what allowed all those things to flourish and that helps us to be the success we are today, our sense of entrepreneurship.
Our history is littered with great business leaders, like the Sutherlands, the Duffs and the Forsyths, but that sense of creating wealth from humble beginnings permeates every level, with ingenuity the engine of our economy. Small businesses spring up when they spot the opportunity because they know it is the very spirit of this city to have a go. It’s important that we’re never afraid to try, so the atmosphere encourages the sort of decision-making that necessitates an organization like the Morgan Institute. For all our other cultural strengths it is this that provides the foundations every other part of Challaid’s identity is built upon.
I want, today, to talk a little about how that spirit of endeavor and creativity has been viewed by people outside Challaid in the past and how it’s viewed now. For many centuries we were seen as isolationists, a city on the edge of the map that only interacted with the rest of the world to take money from it and interfere occasionally in the Scottish political process. We were the outsiders. This, I have always felt, was something of a misleading view of a port city, but it stuck. From the Caledonian expedition to the Spanish conflict to the trade wars to the two world wars, Challaid has always done its bit, its men sacrificing all to serve the greater good for Scotland. Indeed, if you even look at the evolution of our city’s name to its current, simpler spelling and pronunciation, that was due to our connections with the outside world and our desire to interact more easily. But it was something else said about us that really rankled with me and many others.
People in other parts of Scotland, perhaps other parts of the world, viewed Challaid as a city hard to trust. There was a belief that the very entrepreneurial spirit we celebrate today was something untrustworthy, a mark against us. Many read the poem ‘Black Challaid’ and saw it as a fair reflection of us, and in a world then so disconnected it was hard for us to argue back. Challaid was seen as a place where business was done in a way the rest of Scotland disdained, and we have long been tarred by that brush.
So what has changed? Not us. We should be proud of the companies that have such a long history here in Challaid, we should be celebrating the work they have done over the centuries to help create an environment where now companies can spring up, employ people and create wealth in our society. What has changed is how we are seen, because we are no longer isolated. In Challaid we have worked harder than any other city in Scotland to make sure all our citizens have access to superfast broadband, to make sure we are front and center of the technological advancements that are making the world smaller every single day. It is because of that that no one can be misled and we can be seen only as we should be seen, as a bold city that encourages and supports enterprise, which relishes the opportunity to create jobs and prosperity for all of its people.
We don’t want Challaid to be an urban museum like Edinburgh, and at the same time we don’t want to be always chasing modernity because we’ve lost the identity we had, like Glasgow. Challaid must be a city that with one hand grips its past and with the other, the future. Ladies and gentlemen, our economic story has been a long one, and much has changed since that first day, when Challaid began as a place to trade, a place to do business, but some things remain the same. Our reputation, ill-deserved, for criminality and duplicity, is gone among all but the most doggedly ignorant, Challaid now recognized as a fine hub for all manner of local, national and international industries. It is together we have achieved this, and together we will achieve much more. Our past is one of bold, enthusiastic entrepreneurship, and our future is too. Thank you.”