James and Sandy Easdale own McGill's Group, which run buses across the central belt, and launched a blistering attack on the SNP for supporting the costly measure of nationalising Glasgow's bus service.
Two of Scotland's most successful entrepreneurs have launched an excoriating attack on the Scottish Government, urging them to stay out of business and to stop using taxpayers as a "magical money tree". Sandy and James Easdale reacted angrily after the SNP backed plans to nationalise bus services in Glasgow.
The billionaires own McGill's Group, which is the largest independent bus company in the UK, but their business in the central belt could be under threat if the Glasgow City Council-owned SPT take buses under public ownership. They pointed out that the SNP Executive uses public cash to "subsidise failed business."
A row erupted between the Easdales and the SNP after a local councillor called on the Scottish Government to help fund the nationalisation of public transport in Scotland's biggest city. Malcolm Mitchell, Nat councillor for Garscadden/Scotstounhill, has written to both Holyrood and Westminster to raise his case.
However, the Easdales have vowed to take legal action if this goes ahead, and pointed to the millions of pounds plunged in Ferguson Marine to show that the SNP Executive cannot run a business properly.
Sandy said: "The sacking of the Ferguson Marine boss is the latest in this whole sorry saga. I drive past the yard every day from my home in Greenock and it breaks my heart to see the Port Glasgow ship industry die in front me.
"From the minute the Scottish Government got involved it has been one mistake after another. Now they are supporting that pitiful SPT quango who are hell bent on ruining the bus industry in Strathclyde. They can't run businesses, full stop.
"They need to butt out and let businesspeople run businesses. They shouldn’t be interfering in successful enterprises. They subsidise failed business to an enormous degree and because they have no accountability there then is no cap on waste or gross overspending.
"I am beginning to wonder that SNP/Greens know they are finished and are leaving a poison pill for Labour when they win the next election."
He highlighted that there is "no joined up thinking" within the parliament and that "businessmen like James and I must account for every penny, or we would go burst.
"The government just pluck £50 notes from the magic money tree. And who provides all this money – the already battered taxpayers."
He fired out a stark warning that the current administration's "jackets are on a shoogly peg" because of their ongoing failures in Scotland. He said that Police Scotland and NHS Scotland are being run badly and "this is all down to a lack of business experience, financial planning and long-term strategy - and officials who think throwing money at it will fix it."
He added: "If it was coming out of their own pockets, like our investment does, they would not be so cavalier. Everything they do is a short-term fix to try and keep them in power."
SPT, which runs the subway in Glasgow, outlined plans to take the buses into public hands as well, but will need millions of pounds of funding in order to do this. SNP-led Glasgow City Council backed the proposals earlier this month.
James Easdale said: "Governments can't run businesses. Councils are even more challenged and if they muck up, which they will, the government will have to step in despite what Humza Yousaf says.
"Only last week Glasgow Councillor Angus Millar claimed there was billions of foreign investment lined up to develop Glasgow.
"Would you invest in Glasgow when you see the anti-business dogma that flows out of the City Chambers on a daily basis?"
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