ABSTRACT
In general terms the evidence reproduced below suggests that the Scottish economy, in common with much of northern Britain, has lagged further behind the country as a whole over the last decade. The evidence shows that unemployment has remained higher and incomes and expenditure have risen more slowly than in the south of the country. Furthermore, the degree of external ownership and control of Scottish industry has continued to increase together with a relative brake on the rates of new firm formation and indigenous economic development. Concomitantly, output, trade and investment have become more narrowly dependent on a limited number of key industrial sectors. In particular, office machinery and whisky now account for almost half of all non-oil exports and, with, chemicals, have commanded 45 per cent of manufacturing investment in recent years. It is important to note, however, that although these sectors are increasing in importance in terms of output they are employing less people both in relative and absolute terms. The narrowing of the industrial base and the growing dominance of branch plants have had and must continue to have profound implications for the performance of the Scottish economy. The deepening of this divide should also make it ever more clear that the policy prescriptions for an inflationary south-east of England are inappropriate in the context of an embattled and regressing north.
