When making their case for growth, politicians would do well to focus on creating a shared national purpose around broadly based prosperity

In the run-up to the Holyrood election in May we will hear a lot about economic growth. We will hear it’s the only real solution to Scotland’s fiscal challenges. We will hear it can be easily achieved if only politicians would summon the nerve to cut taxes, torch a bunch of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations or dispense with the swathes of pointless red-tape supposedly strangling enterprise at birth. You know the stuff.

We will inevitably hear claims that devolved policies can have a rapid and tangible impact on growth in the short to medium term despite the ongoing geopolitical tumult and reservation of macroeconomic powers to Westminster.

From some we will hear growth is neither sustainable nor necessary for societal wellbeing. More radical voices will make an explicit case for degrowth. Some politicians will flirt with degrowth while being careful not to wholly commit to an agenda that remains deeply unattractive to voters already frustrated by stagnant living standards.

We will hear those raising questions over the legitimacy of growth in the face of an intensifying climate crisis being huffily dismissed as frivolous. And we will hear many of those described as such respond with similar impatience to those who believe growth should be prioritised. In short, we will hear key constituencies talking past one another on a matter of utmost importance to Scotland’s future. Not a great place to be.

What might prove elusive are clear and coherent explanations of why the pursuit of economic growth remains a legitimate aspiration but one that is increasingly hard to achieve.

For understandable reasons – primarily distributional (‘it’s your GDP not ours’) and environmental concerns – growth........

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