CONVENTIONAL wisdom has it that Scotland's economy is now firmly in the post-industrial phase of its development. In terms of share of national output, according to the latest official numbers, manufacturing accounts for just 15.1% of Scottish gross domestic product.
ACHIEVING higher sustainable growth lies at the very heart of the new Scottish government's plans. As the SNP's Let Scotland Flourish paper put it before May's election: "Scotland's growth over the last generation has been one of the lowest in Europe - 1.8% compared to the UK's own 2.3% and smaller European countries' 3.1%. We believe Scotland ... is capable of matching our neighbours' success. This ambition is our top priority."
If we are to believe the official record, a majority of members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee wants us all to know they are completely open-minded on whether, in the current cycle, interest rates will need to go higher still to keep inflation on target.
LAST month, we spent a week exploring the gentle glens and glorious beaches of north Antrim. I last visited the Causeway Coast, as those promoting tourism in these post-Troubles times in Northern Ireland call it, as a child, on family holidays to my mother's homeland.
Alf Young on Thursday: Clearly, whatever the protestations of its executives about that core mortgage problem now being on the mend, HBOS finds itself locked into a wider problem of strategic credibility in increasingly turbulent banking times.
It's a speech neither his predecessor, nor the man who has now co-opted that predecessor into ministerial service, would ever dare make, I suspect. More's the pity.
When ministers in the new Scottish government talk about our economy, they consistently press home the same messages. Scotland's growth performance over many years has fallen below par. Meanwhile, our peers among the small nations of the world, those with independent control over their own affairs, have powered ahead.
It seems the UK's new chancellor of the exchequer is not for yielding on the current tax privileges enjoyed by the masters of private equity or other wealthy business executives, operating out of Britain but, in many cases, not domiciled here.
IN the midst of an unfolding terrorist drama on our doorstep, with all the attendant scrutiny of how the new London and Edinburgh governments are handling it, this may not be the best of times to ponder a very different question.
It will probably prove just as difficult for Gordon Brown to remember that he is no longer Chancellor as it will be for him to believe that he is at last Prime Minister. It is crucial that he does remember that there is another hand at the economic tiller - in order to permit Alistair Darling to settle quickly into position. There are plenty of domestic and international issues for the good Mr D to ponder afresh and then tackle. After 10 years there must be benefits to expect from a new perspective.
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