KEY policy choices have been at the heart of the new United States administration and also our very own Scottish Government with their Budget statement.

President Joe Biden was only hours into office after being sworn in at the US Capitol and already was signing a raft of executive orders. Hitting the ground running he sought to make immediate changes from his predecessor by signing 17 executive actions.

These included: combatting the coronavirus pandemic, including restoring public trust in government efforts and re-engagement with the World Health Organisation, returning to international approach to deal with climate emergency, with the US rejoining the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and reintroduction of measures to combat racism and ending a travel ban from Muslim countries.

At the heart of President Biden’s plans for the first 100 days in office is curbing Covid-19, which has ravaged the United States, and providing economic assistance for families in need. So too are the budget plans of the Scottish Government, which were unveiled this week by the impressive Finance Secretary Kate Forbes.

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In what was correctly billed as the most important Budget since devolution, the key priorities resources were prioritised for “urgent measures to control the virus and protect our economy and people in the immediate term, while also ensuring a strong recovery and a fairer, stronger and greener future”.

Three key guiding principles were highlighted as central to the aims of the Budget: “national mission for new, good and green jobs; promotion of lifelong health and wellbeing, and driving equality and helping our young people to grasp their potential”.

Backing that up was substantial additional investment in the Scottish NHS, in education, local government and other vital frontline services with total investment increasing by £3.8 billion. Direct support for the economy included a non-domestic rates relief package worth almost £1bn and investment in jobs and skills of £1.1bn.

Stability and certainty was provided to taxpayers with no changes to income tax rates and £90 million to support local authorities to freeze the council tax. Fairness was prioritised through £3.5bn for Scottish Government’s social security and welfare payments, including £68m for the “game-changing” Scottish Child Payment. On the climate challenge an addition £2bn is being invested in decarbonising the way we live, travel and heat our buildings and in supporting new, Scottish green industries and woodland creation. The aim is to create thousands of low-carbon jobs and helping to end Scotland’s contribution to climate change by 2045.

The priorities of the Scottish Government will become a major part of the forthcoming Scottish Parliament election, which take place in less than 100 days’ time, as will those of the opposition parties. As we already know from opinion polls, the SNP is rated more highly than all other parties combined, while the competence of the First Minister is highly rated, especially when contrasted with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been reduced to flying visits to Scotland for desperate photo opportunities. All political parties are working at present behind the scenes on their manifestos. Hopefully they all have ambitious and ground-breaking ideas.

Successful policy initiatives from around the world have been featuring recently in the BBC World Service series Compass: My Perfect City – and before that in My Perfect Country. These have included city initiatives on housing in Vienna, employment in Toronto, mental health in Singapore, environment in Oslo, tackling knife crime in Glasgow, integration in Rotterdam, national programmes for a digital society in Estonia, green energy in Costa Rica and drug decriminalisation in Portugal.

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With the prospects of another Scottish independence referendum and a sustained majority now in favour, we can dare to imagine the opportunities for ambitious and ground-breaking policies with the powers of independence. This is exactly the kind of thinking promoted in my favourite book of the moment, The Good Country, by Simon Anholt, the originator of the Nation Brand Index. Anholt, who has advised 56 countries on more effective international engagement, is advocating a new collaborative approach to defeat global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, war poverty, migration and extremism. His case about how we can repair the world in one generation in a Ted Talk has already been watched 7.2 million times with an additional 4.9m times on YouTube.

At present the United Kingdom is withdrawing from international engagement and responsibility. The UK has turned its back on European co-operation, broken its commitment on international development aid and even threatened to breach international law. These are not the hallmarks of a “Good Country”. The point of independence is to be able to do much more than devolution and we should aspire for Scotland to be a better country which is internationally engaged in an interdependent world.