Sturgeon’s economic council is a fig-leaf for independence

This month’s announcement of a new economic advisory council formed by the Scottish government came with the usual flow of superlatives. The 17-member group will publish a strategy paper later this year to help deliver the ‘transformational change Scotland needs’, according to economy secretary Kate Forbes. We are promised ‘bold ideas’ that will bring ‘new, good and green jobs’.

We have been here before. This group replaces a previous Council of Economic Advisers set up by Alex Salmond in 2007. It too had a remit to galvanise the Scottish economy. It provided 14 years of strategic advice (seven of those under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership) to the SNP administration with no obvious corresponding uptick in Scotland’s economic performance. The Sturgeon administration has taken no time to reflect on why that might be the case. Instead, they are repeating the process with some new faces.

You could be forgiven for asking what the point is.