leyton.org

I had meant to post this yesterday, but didn’t get around to finishing it off. So I’ll be brief: Evan Davis has put together what I think is a nicely balanced article on the economics of Scottish Independence.

I always enjoy Evan Davis’ reports, even back when he was ‘just’ Newsnight’s resident Economist, but all the more now that he’s the BBC’s economics editor. He manages to cover frequently quite complicated or subtle economic issues in straightforward and approachable language. For a popular channel such as BBC1, it’s really a significant feat.

His overview of the ‘economics of independence’ is welcome then, because I think he balances the issues nicely, demonstrating it’s not as clear cut as either side might portray. I certainly agree that Independence could be just the kick up the backside that the lack-lustre and state-dependent Scottish economy needs: there really needs to be some big changes to grow business, create more jobs and reduce the dependency on state funding (and the volatile oil revenue) that is at risk of becoming endemic up here.

All said though, I don’t think Scotland really needs full independence to do that. It just needs a parliament and executive that has the power and determination to actually affect many of the changes it really needs to make, and to make a start about differentiating the region in different ways, within the framework of the UK.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Glasgow, Politics, Scotland, Scottish elections, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.