SNP Reveal Economic Policy Party Growth Commission
Nicola Sturgeon has unveiled the team she has tasked with exploring economic policy options for an independent Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon has unveiled the team she has tasked with exploring economic policy options for an independent Scotland.
The First Minister and SNP leader announced the party growth commission during a speech earlier this month in which she said the time was right for a ''new conversation'' on independence.
The commission, chaired by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, will consider how to boost economic growth and improve Scotland's public finances in the context of both the vote to leave the European Union (EU) and independence.
It will also make policy recommendations on the most appropriate'' monetary policy for an independent Scotland as well as the range of transitional cost and benefits associated with independence.
Ms Sturgeon said: The commission's work will inform our thinking in the here and now - how we sustain growth during the period of uncertainty caused by Brexit - but will also examine projections for Scotland's finances and proposals for growth in the context of independence.
That work will include considering policies to grow the economy and reduce Scotland's deficit, and looking at the monetary arrangements which would best underpin a strategy for sustainable growth.''
Mr Wilson said: It is my sincere hope that should Scotland be asked to choose again on independence, this project ensures that we all have as sound, transparent and firm a prospectus as any country facing such a choice has ever had.
Just as important, I hope the work can help the SNP deliver the policies and leadership that are needed now to secure the productivity, growth and competitiveness that we need, delivering sustainable funding for quality public services.
We need to think ambitiously, inclusively and differently. It is time for substance and respect in our debate - people in this country have not had enough of experts, that much is certain.''
The 14-member panel includes Iain Docherty, professor of public policy and governance at the University of Glasgow; Andrew Hughes Hallett, professor of economics and public policy at George Mason University and the University of St Andrews; Catherine Schenk, professor of international economic history at the University of Glasgow and former enterprise minister Jim Mather, visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde and Heriot Watt University.
From the world of business are Mark Shaw, chief executive of Hazledene; Petra Wetzel, founder and managing director of WEST Brewery; Marie Macklin, chief executive of the Klin Group and Macklin Enterprise Partnership, and Dan McDonald, founder of N56 group.
SNP politicians on the panel include Finance Secretary Derek MacKay, further education, higher education and science minister Shirley-Anne Somerville, MSP Kate Forbes, MP Roger Mullin and North Ayrshire councillor Marie Burns.
The SNP said the panel will seek views from across the political spectrum as well as from business, trade unions and civic society.