Hi Brian, the BERD trends are more complex than they appear, the contribution to BERD growth (or limited decline) doesn't come as you might expect from hi-tech sectors as might be expected. We are finishing a piece of work on this and I'll happy share it with you in a month or so. Alasdair Reid

Brian, the trend lines are so close together in both cases, it's hardly worth discussing the difference. I'm not really clear what point you are trying to make, except that clearly being part of the UK has done Scotland no good whatsoever over the last few years.

Hi Brian, Your piece is interesting but I tend to agree with Dick Winchester that it makes the mistake of assuming the status quo in a structurally weakening UK economy is better than any possible future. If you look at the productivity figures you mention, and while I accept that productivity is largely due to economic structure which doesn't change radically very fast, rather than concluding from the data that more should be done to raise Scottish productivity rates towards those of the top EU performers, you curiously decide that the figures tie us to the UK's weak performance for ever and the pound to boot. I'd be interested to read in a future blog what would be your 'recipe' for raising those Scottish productivity figures over the coming decade. And perhaps that could be done in a two scenario approach - remaining in UK versus independence given that the two options leave open different policy routes.