IN this week’s Debate Night on BBC there were calls for more funding to be put into policing, education, mental health, housing and tackling drug addiction. The calls could equally have involved criminal justice, social services, health, poverty reduction or transport infrastructure or several other areas of devolved responsibility.

At a time when the UK Government is pursuing an aggressive policy of austerity, a policy Labour promise they will continue if elected, there is no prospect of the Scottish Government being able to address even a small proportion of the areas that need urgent attention unless it makes rapid progress in developing additional income streams.

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In the longer term an independent Scotland with its own currency would be able to escape the austerity trap, but in the meantime there are options to raise significant income from the wealth locked up in the country’s land and from more intelligent management of its renewable energy.

Without some radical movement in this direction there can be no prospect of meaningful improvement in Scotland’s social fabric.

Cameron Crawford
Rothesay