Time to evolve
What is the real purpose of the Growth Commission report, asked for by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and chaired by former MSP and economist Andrew Wilson? Let’s hope it is not another document which simply prompts navel gazing about Scotland’s constitutional future. For as Lesley Riddoch points out, it would be wrong not to learn from the experience of others, but wise to adapt policy to the circumstances that prevail (Perspective, 9 April).
If the recommendations of the Commission are to have any value, the focus has to be on how the businesses of the future can help deliver the prosperity we all desire in as civilised a way as possible.
There needs to be plenty of analysis, too, on what blend between the public and private sector is appropriate to help deliver that prosperity. That should not be based on some idea that the system of another country – be it Hong Kong, New Zealand, Norway or Singapore – can somehow be superimposed here. In terms of economic development, evolution rather revolution is the best way forward.
In practical terms, too, the Commission ought to have something to say about issues that befuddled the Yes side throughout 2014. The currency for an independent Scotland was a matter that caused endless confusion; there was uncertainty, too, about the future of state pensions and defence – not just how the country would be defended but the vexed question of military contracts on which so many jobs depend. Although the impending Brexit means it is difficult for any Commission to predict exactly what will happen in the future, there is still a chance to provide reassurance and hope to many who did not see independence to be in their economic interest.
This is certainly a time for vision but the Commission must have a vision that is rooted in people’s everyday concerns.
BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes
Lesley Riddoch is right to point out that nationalist movements often lack economic motives, epitomised by Éamon de Valera’s famous 1943 “dream” broadcast of an Ireland “of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort and devoted their leisure to things of the spirit”.
Economics did not cause the bitter civil wars in Finland in 1918 or in Ireland in 192223. These were definitely not “the benefits of being in a wee country”. As for Slovakia, mentioned in Ms Riddoch’s final paragraph in a list of models to think about, it is one to be avoided. Very bad things happened there after it got its independence for the first time, in 1939, thanks to Hitler. HUGH PENNINGTON Carlton Place, Aberdeen