And it’s disaster for Scotland… If anyone wanted, for illustrative purposes, to devise a caricature scenario of the worst kind of fiscal policy that would destroy an economy, that template would be the latest devolved Scottish budget.

It fits in seamlessly with all the other far-left policies implemented by the SNP/Green administration at Holyrood, a cumulative undermining of Scotland’s economic and social well-being over 16 years. Only Scotland’s situation as a component nation of the United Kingdom camouflages the underlying reality: if it were a sovereign country, it would rank as a failed state.