There seems to be an inexorable rise in legislation and regulation which does more harm than good.
This is not just a Scottish phenomenon. Take for example the misuse by Robert Maxwell of funds within the Mirror Group pension fund. A genuine scandal but which ratcheted up an already swelling tide of regulation of the pension industry. Increased oversight is no bad thing but interference in investment policy and above all the confusion of volatility with risk now means that British pensions and life insurance companies, which used to dominate investment in the UK stockmarket, now hardly allocate much investment there at all.
The result is reduced liquidity and poorer valuations which increasingly drive companies to other markets and reduce the value of our savings. The London stock market, once a global leader, no longer sits comfortably in the premier division.
You can perhaps forgive the UK Government for introducing its post-Maxwell investment reforms because there was a genuine issue and the detrimental effects of its actions have taken years to unfold.
Less forgivable are some of the recent legislative interventions by the Scottish Government.
That capping residential rents would reduce the supply of houses for rent and actually drive up rentals was entirely predictable. The Scottish Government were........