LAST week the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission was published, kick-starting a new debate on Scotland’s future as a small, independent nation. It sets out a vision for creating jobs and raising living standards. It presents a realistic ambition for Scotland driven by inclusive growth, based on the economies of other small, independent nations which outperform the UK economy.

What the Growth Commission doesn’t do is plan austerity. It calls for investment to grow Scotland’s economy to move towards the performance of other independent countries, by increasing participation, productivity and population. The measures proposed serve to reduce inequality and poverty. Over the past 10 years Scotland’s budget from Westminster has been cut by 8% in real terms. That is austerity. The Growth Commission propose to increase public spending in Scotland by 5% in real terms over 10 years. That is not austerity.

In fact, analysis has shown that if the growth commission spending recommendations had been implemented over the last ten years, the £2.6bn cuts to Scotland’s budget would’ve been reversed entirely. Austerity is the price of being saddled to an increasingly right wing, economically illiterate, out-of-touch Westminster government. The SNP has worked hard to mitigate some of the worst excesses of the Tory austerity agenda, and we’re not about to stop any time soon.

Independence will give us the opportunity to reject austerity, once and for all. The case for fiscal contraction was spurious to begin with, but has now completely collapsed.

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman describes the UK Government’s commitment to cutting welfare as ideological, rather than economically sound. He says the Tories used “the alleged dangers of debt and deficits as clubs with which to beat the welfare state and justify cuts in benefits.”

Even by the UK Government’s own criteria, welfare reforms have failed: aside from the social cost of cuts, which are overwhelming, there is still a deficit of £52bn after 10 years of austerity.

Independence gives Scotland a chance to choose a different path. We could grow our economy without having to resort to brutal cuts on the backs of poor and vulnerable people.

Scotland could choose to stay in the European Single Market, the largest market in the world, with 500 million people. Scotland could choose to take control of immigration policy, to attract the best talent to our country, increase the working population and fund public services.

Scotland could choose to reject nuclear weapons and abnormally high defence spending, and divert those funds to where they are needed most. Scotland could choose its own future, and the debate inspired by the Growth Commission is fundamental for determining the direction of travel we will take as a nation.

Whatever your opinion on it, the Growth Commission is a substantial body of work, setting out a vision and a direction for Scotland’s future. The onus is now on other parties to do the same.

It’s easy to criticise without clearly setting out a strategy to grow the economy. The people of Scotland deserve better.