Amidst all the noise and fun of Brexit - and now probably a General Election to break the deadlock one way or the other - the Scottish Government has set out its legislative programme for 2019/20.
Few will read this in detail because it is long both in terms of pages and jargon but they should because it reveals much about what the SNP think we should be concentrating on - and the news is not good for business.
A number of points jump out at you.
First, a key Scottish Government policy is to have another Independence Referendum before the end of the current term of the Scottish Parliament. This is in spite of all the evidence - so often pointed out by Nicola and her chums in the context of Brexit - that a combination of a divided nation and major constitutional change is very bad for growth, jobs and effective Government.
The SNP think it is right to have another Independence Referendum before we can even begin to see and understand the effects of life outside the EU. More dislocation - your job, the economic activity which funds your local hospital and school - they all don’t matter as long as we can get away from the UK. There is an unseemly rush and dishonourable use of one uncertainty to create another which shows the Nationalists as they really are - obsessed with one thing whatever the cost to actual people’s lives. If Independence is such a great plan they should take the honest route - show us they can govern well, let us see what the post-Brexit world is actually like and win an election with a clear and unqualified statement that they want to hold another Independence Referendum. Why the haste? - because Independence is a duff idea which they hope to sneak past us in the smoke of Brexit.
The second thing you notice is that we supposedly have a climate emergency. What it appears we don’t have is an anti-biotic resistance emergency, or a diabetes emergency or a failing schools emergency. Only climate apparently.
This fictitious “emergency” provides cover for some stupidities which should make us worry. The new Scottish Investment Bank which is being set up with lots of your and my money will now not be trying to raise our pitiful economic growth rate so that we can reduce our deficit and pay for better public services but instead will have as its primary mission to “ensure transition to net zero”. Another opportunity to deal with immediate problems is lost.
Amidst all this greenery can be found the biggest single project financial number in the programme - £500 million on better bus lanes. Don’t worry about the crumbing roads or the fact that your train is late again and again - let’s concentrate on infuriating other road users with more bus lanes.
The third thing which strikes you - and if you are trying to run a business in Scotland it is pretty depressing - is that of the fourteen new bills which the Scottish Government proposes to introduce in 2019/20 not one is squarely aimed at the promotion of business and economic growth. It’s not that the Good Food Nation Bill or the Transient Visitor Levy Bill or the UEFA European Championships Bill are not worthwhile things for the Scottish Government to spend its time and our money on but they are peripheral to the real task of making Scotland a more economically vibrant country. Just when the SNP could show leadership by example - taking tough but sensible decisions and promoting business activity - they fail to do so and fall back on social tinkering and the independence obsession.
Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community.
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