Why Scotland can do better on her own

ANDREW HUGHES HALLETT When I left Scotland nearly six years ago, the political debate concerned itself with the economy, and parliament's or the executive's ability to steer the economy. It was focused on public expenditures and the state of public-sector finances in particular. At that time, those who studied Scotland's financial position said the fiscal account was roughly in balance, or possibly 1%-2% of national income in deficit. I was told by those responsible for managing public expenditures that this was nonsense - the deficit was larger than that, around 3%-4% of national income based on a formula that attributed 10% of all spending on English projects (at the time, subsidies to the Rover car plant) to the Scottish deficit. But none the other way since no-one was calculating the English deficit.