"Scotland's growth problem is inextricably linked to its shrinking population. For decades, centuries even, we have been exporting skilled and educated workers and entrepreneurs who find that the best opportunities lie in England or abroad. If you stay in Scotland, after a point, you find there's just nowhere to go. The magnetic attraction of the metropolis is the greatest inhibitor of Scottish enterprise. If anything is "crowding out business" it is London. If Scotland is to start growing again, it must somehow level this billiard table by creating a climate in which capital and skills remain here instead of migrating south. This can only mean a structure of fiscal incentives which will keep Scottish businesses in Scotland, encourage new ones to form and attract established businesses from abroad.Only then will the state diminish in relative size. The amazing thing is that just about everyone agrees with this analysis – even the Scottish Tories, who are now taking fiscal autonomy seriously. The only people who don't are the CBI. I agree that ideally the public sector should occupy a smaller proportion of the Scottish economy. But just whingeing about the state is a red herring. We don't live in Soviet Russia. We are a capitalist economy. It's just that in Scotland we are left with some pretty useless capitalists."
Some elements of truth here. But it is a bit simplistic to blame our troubles on the proposition that all the good capitalists have gone to London. One might say the same about politicians or even journalists...
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