Harris Tweed fund

Congratulations to the Council in setting up the fund, which - if I understand it correctly - will take orders from the mills; fund the weavers to produce the tweed; and, then sell the tweed to the mills as they approach their busy time.

Unfortunately, the Scottish Government seem to have given the plan a wide berth, despite our MP asking them to help:

I am asking the Minister to use his Office to try and get a £350,000 investment fund, not a grant, underway

And our MSP doing the same:

he was continuing to press for an investment fund to stabilise the traditional peaks and troughs in demand in the industry.

Perhaps Jim Mather was too busy responding to their similar requests about Lighthouse Caledonia (d'cd).

I am told that their efforts have barely been acknowledged by Government, and that they have had little or no involvement in setting up the fund, beyond press releases, and consequently the Comhairle - to its credit - has gone ahead alone.

Before anyone gets too complacent about the success of the fund, Hebrides News is reporting that Stickie's mill has a vast quantity of tweed in stock, and as some employees have reported to me, there seems no prospect of any orders coming their way in the forseeable future. Were it not for the seemingly limitless pockets of Haggas in funding a core staff doing virtually nothing.

The Comhairle have to be sure that the mills will take (and be able to pay for) the tweed ordered so that public money is not squandered, but I am sure that they are only too well aware of this.

Just one last thought - just where are these completed tweeds going to be stored?