LIAM Fox’s sally at the British business community as being “too lazy and fat” for a post-Brexit world has aroused a storm of indignation, at least among its slimmer and nimbler members. We have heard less from those who are as a matter of fact fat and lazy. Perhaps they are too stunned at the frankness of this son of East Kilbride. In his years representing English suburb and shire, he has never really gone native and turned posh, but carried the plain speaking of the west of Scotland with him.

Liam and I have a little bit of form. We were both once young Turks among the Scots Tories, with me on the side of the devolutionist faction that was at length purged, and him on the side of the stern and unbending Unionists. Despite the odd duel across the floor of the party conference, I always got on well with him. “Hello Michael”, he sang out when our paths last crossed at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. “Hello Liam,” I replied.

This was a while ago now, but I have the feeling that in some respects Liam has never quite left his native land behind him. Certainly his disdain for businessmen flocking to golf courses on a Friday afternoon smacks more of a stern-visaged Scottish outlook on life than of a slack-jawed English one. Recently,

I listened to a senior financier, himself a non-player, complaining of the “golfocracy” that rules the roost north of the Border and of what a handicap (sorry) it is for anybody who does not care to join them at the 19th hole as they discuss the latest issue of gilts.

But in fact, on this senior corporate level, I suspect the Scots are even fatter and lazier than their English counterparts. In Scotland, it is no great advantage to be lean and mean. The competition does not amount to much. Most big companies occupy secure niches, which they want neither to expand nor to be intruded on. Many of their directors will have gone to school and university together, will know what one another’s fathers did, will be aware of the state of their marriages – and, of course, will belong to the same golf clubs.

It is also often a wise career move for such people to sit on professional bodies and on quangos, where they will soon meet the civil servants relevant to their industry and the politicians these serve. Public status for the proprietors will come in handy if a company, despite its secure moorings on the placid river of Scottish life, one day runs into a bit of choppy water and needs help. It can expect that somebody, cash in hand, will come rowing to the rescue.

The other big thing about these kinds of people is that they are in the overwhelming majority Unionists, usually on the argument that independence will bring uncertainty. I would reply that human existence brings uncertainty, and that the only way to escape it in the end is to find a bridge somewhere – lots of choice in Scotland – preferably one with a nice view that you can enjoy in your last seconds as you plunge towards the water. In any case, the idea that post-Brexit Britain somehow represents certainty is laughable.

All of which makes me wonder why the Scottish Government should be so attuned in its industrial policy, such as it is, to the interests and outlook of precisely this kind of corporation man. There is at any rate nothing across the range of its commercial strategies to challenge his conventional wisdom. But we desperately need something new at a time when the nation’s growth rate is falling so fast that the present level of employment just will not be sustained. As for the underlying problems, if they could be solved by the existing policy mix then, at some point over the 50 years it has operated, they would have been.

It is not reassuring to look at the particular twist such a deeply traditional and conservative approach has taken in the SNP’s decade of power. Perhaps this is best summed up in the Scottish Business Pledge, announced to a great fanfare 18 months ago. The pledge is not one the Government makes to the actors in the national economy, but one they are asked to make to it. That’s the wrong way round for a start.

In detail, the pledge asks them to do all sorts of virtuous things, such as pay the living wage, engage with their workforce, balance it by sex and race, connect with their community and so on. I find nothing wrong with any of this in theory, except to say it has little to do with the everyday tasks of turning a buck – especially in economic times that are getting harder. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. There are about 250 firms that have signed up to the pledge. There are more than 150,000 businesses in Scotland.

The motives of those who have signed up are easy to guess if you inspect the list of them.

All the banks are there, many big accountants and lawyers, colleges and universities, chambers of commerce, multinational companies from Microsoft to Michelin to Coca-Cola! I love this one: Smart Compliance.

Indeed, smart compliance is what all these outfits are up to. If you are a big corporation and the government asks you to do this, that or the other, it is easy to say Oh yes, yes, yes – and then carry on as if nothing had happened. Should you ever be pursued by some civil servant inquiring whether you actually have “a robust people plan”, “a progressive approach to using skills’ or “a family-friendly workplace” (these are all among the pledge’s objectives), you can just dispatch an office junior to concoct the necessary evidence. Done and dusted: next official favour, please. You can even get in a few rounds of golf while waiting for it.

Yet all this has nothing to do with the interests and activities of 99 per cent of Scottish business, made up of small and medium enterprises employing no more than 50 workers apiece but accounting for 60 per cent of the nation’s workforce and 40 per cent of its output. These do not spend much time worrying about (here’s another objective) “considering how your organisational culture could better support a diverse workforce”. They can’t afford to. They have more than enough on their hands finding work, doing it and getting paid. For people like these, the Scottish Business Pledge will be more like a huge wet blanket on their Scottish spirit of enterprise (still just about there against all the odds).

At least, as I wrote last week, things are beginning to change, with the Government’s announcement of a growth commission and a business fund to cover the financing gaps that penalise small companies. But a lot more needs to be done in view of the poor state of the Scottish economy and its worsening prospects if we are going to get the growth that is the only cure for all these ills. At this level, there’s no time for golf.