This summer the SNP is discussing independence. You might think this sentence calls to mind bears, woods, popes and Catholicism. Yet these discussions are more unusual than you might imagine. Since the independence referendum in September 2014 there has been zero debate in official SNP policy forums about what caused that defeat.

The reasons are twofold. First, the party had no other strategy that could be discussed. Second, the SNP leadership could not be sure where such a discussion would lead. With membership swollen to more than 100,000, no one could know what the new-found faithful would say.

One of these reasons no longer applies. The growth commission chaired by Andrew Wilson has delivered a new approach to currency, monetary policy and macroeconomic strategy in