BUTE House on Charlotte Square, the official home of Scotland’s First Minister, is a short walk from my office in Edinburgh’s beautiful west end.
LEVELLING up is a stated priority of the UK Government. And no wonder. The UK economic model produces possibly the worst regional inequality in the industrialised world and amongst the worst general inequality.
THE next big strategic argument at a UK level will be between those who want to tighten the belt of public finances far too soon and those of us who want government to invest on a grand scale to support the recovery and reforming of the economy that is now urgent.
TODAY’S announcement of £30 billion of measures in support of the economy follow on from previous announcements of £158.7bn of direct fiscal spending and support along with £122.8bn of tax deferrals and loan support taking the direct cost of Covid-19 interventions to £311.5bn.
THE pressure on the UK economy has not been as great since the financial crisis of 2008. The impact of a disorderly Brexit process was bad enough. Then came Covid-19. The challenge for policy-makers could barely be greater. The UK’s Central Bank is of course independent of Government. But they nonetheless acted on Budget day to provide practical and sentimental support for markets and the real economy in an impressive show of tacit co-ordination.
WRITING for this newspaper in the past year has afforded me an excellent opportunity to express my own perspectives on the issues of the moment but chiefly around the theme this paper is most devoted to – winning Scotland’s independence. It is so important for the independence movement to have a newspaper like The National with the ability to balance the agendas of other outlets.
ANDREW Hughes Hallett was one of the foremost political economists of his generation. Author, editor and academic, he died in the United States on the night of Hogmanay, surrounded by his family including his wife Claudia, and children David, Jim and Nicky.
CHOICE is one thing, and it matters. Our choices become us. We become our choices. Making good our choices matters even more. It is a subtle distinction that will make the world of a difference.
WHATEVER the result, I don’t think it will make too much sense to get overly excited in either direction and read too much into the headline outcome of today’s vote in Scotland.
MAKING sense of this election is not going to be a simple process. All elections convulse one way and another through the course of them before the day of choice arrives. As we know, we are our choices. This one remains extremely difficult to read all across the UK.
