Point-scoring and warm words: How this Holyrood election let Scotland down badly
Politicians should have been putting forward serious policies designed to build a genuinely competitive, high-growth economy, writes Sandy Begbie, of Scottish Financial Enterprise
This Scottish Parliament election should have been a profound moment. It should have represented the perfect opportunity to debate how Scotland navigates a moment of major economic, technological and geopolitical change. It should have been the opportunity to discuss how we help businesses scale and generate the sustainable growth, productivity and high-quality jobs on which our prosperity – and the funding of our public services – ultimately depends.
Instead, if the current campaign has demonstrated anything, it is how far our political classes are from answering those questions. In place of serious engagement with the structural challenges facing our economy, we have been treated to a campaign defined by point-scoring, personality politics and warm words.
That is not to say the issues are not recognised. Weak productivity, sluggish growth and the urgent need for meaningful public sector reform are well-rehearsed concerns among businesses, economists and policymakers alike. They are not abstract problems, but they increasingly feature in the political discourse as concepts to talk about, rather than problems to be solved.
They shape wages, investment decisions and ultimately the quality of the public services we all rely upon. And they are difficult to solve – which may help explain why they have been so conspicuously absent from the political debate. Party manifestos are a case in point, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies and others have recognised.
Damaging Scotland’s financial services
Across the political spectrum, parties have defaulted to positioning rather than substance. Eye-catching proposals and rhetorical flourishes have taken precedence over hard choices, with proposals for additional taxation on financial services firms being a case in point.
We know that taxes disincentivise activity, in this case the job creation and growth upon which our economy, communities and households depend. As well as a ‘gross value added’ contribution of £17.7 billion each year and annual exports of £12bn, the 151,000 people employed in our industry play a key role in Scotland’s economy, and also in households and communities across our country.
This is particularly the case in Edinburgh, Glasgow and wider Central Belt. With an annual growth rate of 3 to 3.5 per cent over recent years, our financial and professional services sector is critical to delivering the economic growth and well-funded public services our country needs.
Why stifle our top-performing sector? In Scottish politics, it is far easier to identify a convenient target than it is to confront the trade-offs required to drive growth.
Political courage required
This is particularly frustrating because it is not for lack of constructive input. Scottish Financial Enterprise, alongside partners across industry, has set out a series of practical measures aimed at boosting growth: creating a stable and competitive tax environment; committing government to an annual growth target; accelerating planning and infrastructure delivery; and ensuring regulation supports – rather than stifles – innovation.
None of these ideas are radical. Nor are they partisan. But they do require political courage and a willingness to put politics to one side after the election and work together in the interests of all of our futures. They demand an acceptance that growth cannot be commanded from the centre, that resources are finite, and that prioritisation is unavoidable. Instead, we have seen a reluctance to engage with precisely those realities.
This represents a missed opportunity. Elections should be moments of clarity – a chance to set out competing visions for the country and to have an honest conversation with voters about the path ahead. Scotland, more than ever, needs that conversation. We are navigating an increasingly uncertain global environment, from geopolitical instability to the transformative impact of artificial intelligence. In such a context, policy drift and short-termism are not neutral, but actively damaging.
Global investors interested in Scotland
Scotland has enormous strengths. Our financial and professional services sector is a national asset, our universities are world-class, we have huge strength and potential in energy, and our entrepreneurial base continues to innovate. This was made clear at Scotland’s Global Investment Summit in October, which attracted investors from across the globe.
But strengths alone are not enough. Without the right policy framework, they will not translate into sustained growth. That is why the tone of the election campaign still matters. It shaped not just public perception, but investor confidence and business sentiment.
Whoever forms the next administration must move quickly to put aside the posturing of the campaign and engage seriously with the economic challenges we face. That means focusing relentlessly on productivity, encouraging high-wage jobs, embracing meaningful public sector reform, and creating the conditions in which businesses can invest and grow.
It also means being honest about trade-offs when it comes to decisions over taxation, spending and public services. There are no cost-free solutions. But there are consequences to avoiding the debate altogether, and those consequences are already being felt. If we are not careful, this inertia will compound the challenges facing Scotland.
Scotland does not lack ideas. It does not lack talent. What it risks lacking is the political willingness to confront reality. The next Scottish Parliament looks set to be more politically fragmented than we have seen since devolution and it is more important than ever for business to step into that void and represent the needs of Scotland’s economy and, by extension, the prosperity and wellbeing of households and communities across the country.
The next five years will be decisive, and it is incumbent on all our elected parliamentarians, at Holyrood and Westminster, to have an unrelenting focus on building a genuinely competitive, high-growth economy.
And that campaign must start now.
Sandy Begbie is chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise
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