There are plenty of people, within and outwith the business world, who are happy to pan the Scottish Government at every opportunity.

Most of the time, unsurprisingly, this is politically motivated.

That is not to say that business should not lobby for the things it believes will help it, and we have seen plenty of this in the run-up to today’s Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government should, of course, pay heed to sensible suggestions, and help where it can, while taking into account broader societal considerations. And businesses, for their own long-term benefit, should be cognisant of the societal context. They benefit from having access to a highly educated workforce and to customers who have enough money to spend on their goods and services.

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Sadly on an overall level, however, when it comes to business and the economy, what the seemingly constant whine of complaints from the Scottish Government’s detractors does is create the impression that Scotland has become a most unattractive place to invest. And such an impression is surely bad for everyone.

At the moment, in this vein, the build-to-rent lobby has been particularly noisy, as it pursues its own money-making agenda, as is perhaps only natural.

Amid all the whingeing and negativity, it was particularly encouraging, and not for the first time, to see yet more good news for Scotland on the foreign direct investment (FDI) front last week.

A key survey from........

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