Why Scotland needs more power to deal with Covid recovery – Angus Robertson

For the first time since the Covid-19 lockdown, Scotland has had a day with no new deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus.

This is hugely encouraging, but is still a long way from the enviable situation in New Zealand which in recent days was able to confirm it has no cases in the country at all.

New quarantine rules have come into force here to try and ensure that the downward trend in pandemic cases continues.

This will, however, have an inevitable impact on business and tourism, as the lockdown rules are eased

We are now learning of thousands of job losses from larger and smaller businesses, which underlines the growing scale of the economic challenge from the coronavirus crisis.

This is only going to get worse in the weeks and months ahead.

The Scottish Government has an excruciating job in balancing public health priorities with the damage the lockdown is having on jobs, businesses and the economy in general.

One thing for certain is that the Scottish Parliament doesn’t have the full powers at its disposal necessary to properly manage the recovery.

Scotland does not have access to the capital markets like other normal countries. At present, UK bonds are significantly oversubscribed, and more resources could be raised.

Scotland should be able to do so itself. It must do in future.

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