Economy
The Mount Stuart Trust owns 28,000 acres on the island and is wholly controlled by five members of the Marquess of Bute’s family, plus an accountant and lawyer. None of them live on Bute.
Farming and tourism are the main industries on the island, along with fishing and forestry. Privately owned businesses include Telecom Service Centres (TSC), Port Bannatyne Marina and Boat Yard, the Ardmaleish Boatbuilding Company, Bute Fabrics Ltd, (an international weaver of contemporary woollen fabrics for upholstery and vertical applications), and the Scottish Mead Company.
The local radio station, Bute FM, found itself at the centre of a local controversy in 2010 after presenter Michael Blair was sacked and several volunteers walked out in sympathy. The situation was apparently exacerbated when the a phone-in show was prevented from airing complaints from listeners about the incident. The show's presenter resigned in protest stating that "for a community radio show to tell listeners they can't have their say on a show called 'Have Your Say' is just incredible."
Read more about this topic: Isle Of Bute
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“War. Fighting. Men ... every man in the whole realm is in the army.... Every man in uniform ... An economy entirely geared to war ... but there is not much war ... hardly any fighting ... yet every man a soldier from birth till death ... Men ... all men for fighting ... but no war, no wars to fight ... what is it, what does it mean?””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)