Scottish nationalism’s left turn

BIDENOMICS hasCHIPSgdpSNP many fans. The newest is Humza Yousaf, the first minister of Scotland. In a speech on January 8th he praised the Biden administration’s revival of industrial strategy and the “great force and clarity” of its vision. He noted approvingly the Inflation Reduction Act, a vast package of manufacturing tax breaks, and the Act, intended to bring semiconductor-makers to America. Here was a blueprint for an independent Scotland. With oil revenues and borrowing powers, he said, a new nation would plough £2bn a year ($2.5bn, 1% of ) into green energy.As policy, this is . No one in the Scottish National Party () really thinks that independence is coming any time soon. Momentum has been stalled, first by a ruling in 2022 from Britain’s Supreme Court that a unilateral referendum would be unlawful and then by a party-finance scandal involving Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Yousaf’s predecessor. America can indulge in protectionism and splurge on subsidies because it has a vast domestic market and the world’s reserve currency. Scotland’s population is little larger than South Carolina’s, and nationalists can’t agree on what currency their new state would use.