Independence to help solve aging population issues
I noted with considerable interest that my MSP colleague Liz Smith chose to focus her April 11, 2023 contribution to the Perthshire Advertiser on the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s (SFC) sustainability report that has forecast economic and demographic challenges for Scotland over the next 50 years.
The SFC report warns that Scotland will face long-term challenges to fund the delivery of public services due to pressure from rising costs of delivery and an ageing population.
The situation is clearly serious and Ms Smith did an effective job of illustrating that the“consequences will be felt worst in Scotland where the birth rate and migration are lower”.
However, it is Ms Smith’s solutions to these problems that particularly caught my attention stating that“the most immediate requirement for the Scottish Government to counter this impending financial drain must be to encourage rapid economic growth so that we can fund an increasingly costly health service”.
This position fully ignores the reality that Scotland lacks the full range of political powers required to manage the financial challenges it is likely to face over the next 50 years.
Liz Smith’s party has been governing the UK since 2010 and has shown that it is not only exacerbating, but is a barrier to addressing these issues.
Their chaotic economic mismanagement realised most brutally in the disastrous September mini-budget created unnecessary additional financial hardship for households and businesses all across the country, whilst the IMF has predicted that the UK is set to be the worst performing economy in the G20 - operating even more poorly than warmongering Russia.
And that’s before we even consider the effects of Brexit.
The Brexit introduced in Scotland despite an overwhelming vote to Remain is estimated to hit Scotland harder than other UK nations, costing a predicted loss of £12.7 billion per year by 2030.
And with SFC highlighting the economic problems that will arise from a lack of migration, the fact that Brexit has closed off a viable and sustainable route for EU nationals to contribute to our economy shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Surely the rapid economic growth Ms Smith calls for depends on having the people to carry out that ambition? Currently our farmers lack an agricultural workforce to get their crops planted or harvested; our hospitality industry is lacking employees; and with reference to the delivery of public services - our NHS is crying out for a greater availability of staff.
All of this has got harder since Brexit ended freedom of movement.
In the meantime the UK Government’s mismanagement of the economy and austerity policies have resulted in a range of cost of living pressures applied to its citizens, to which the Scottish Government has allocated almost £3bn to help mitigate these impacts in Scotland despite limited resources.
It is much easier to grow an economy if you manage it properly, and not hit people in their pockets.
I agree with Liz Smith that the SFC report needs focussed attention but unlike her I am calling for serious answers. The challenges of an ageing population demonstrates the necessity for Scotland to be independent, with full control over the economy and powers over migration.