Scotland has a big problem, and it has nothing to do with the Tories, with Brexit or with any of the other issues that the nationalist establishment is obsessed with. Scotland’s problem is that, largely as a result of Labour and SNP socialist policies, its economy is performing appallingly, and has been doing so for ages.

Year after year and quarter after quarter, Scotland has been growing more slowly than the overall UK economy and England in particular. The catastrophic decline of the North Sea oil and gas industry, combined with a collapse in energy prices compared to their historic peaks, has also crippled growth, of course.

But there is far, far more to Scotland’s economic woes than merely the downturn affecting the extractive industries: all parts of the economy are in a rut. It pains me deeply to say so, but the Scottish economy now more closely resembles a struggling eurozone periphery economy than it does that of England.