Anyone in their mid thirties or younger has never known good times, at least economically speaking. If you were born in 1990, you became a working, taxpaying and voting adult right at the time when the financial crisis hit. We talk about the cost of living crisis as though it is new; a creation of the current war in Iran. A few years ago we talked about it as though it was a creation of the Ukraine war, and before that we blamed Covid, and before that we blamed Brexit.

But in reality the cost of living crisis began in 2008 with the financial crash. 

That is the point at which average wages stopped growing at their trend rate, beginning a period of near-stagnation to the point where they are now around 20 per cent less than they would have been if the pre-2008 trend had been followed. It is also the point at which economic growth halved, broadly speaking, from regularly two or three per cent to something more like one or two per cent.

The aforementioned wars, the bungled response to the pandemic, and the national act of self-harm of Brexit were additional and significant bumps in the road, but this journey began with the financial crash.

Another referendum is the last thing John Swinney needs

No more excuses on roads and infrastructure

Scotland wants political change, but they might think they can get it by staying the same 

In that context, then, Britain’s steady movement away from mainstream political parties towards those on polar opposite ends of the spectrum is no surprise. Mainstream political parties have........

© Herald Scotland