THE wellbeing economy is high on the agenda in Scotland’s politics right now, especially with the recent inclusion of the economic approach in a cabinet secretary role – but what does it mean?
To answer that question, The National is teaming up with Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, the CEO of Business for Scotland, the founder of Believe in Scotland and chief economist at Scotianomics, Scotland's wellbeing economy think tank.
In our new and FREE weekly newsletter, MacIntyre-Kemp will bring you exclusive explainers, deep-dive case studies and in-depth analysis of the approach – just as he has been doing while touring the country talking to Yes groups about the approach that he believes is key to taking Yes over the 60% milestone.
Business for Scotland has done polling on attitudes towards a wellbeing economy which show voters from all political parties support the values of a wellbeing economy.
Through the market research firm Panelbase, Scotianomics surveyed 1,070 respondents who live in Scotland.
The graph below shows the attitude towards “the focus of the economy should be more to serve the needs of the people and society than the needs of big business and finance” by political allegiance.
So the new newsletter - Reinventing Scotland - is to make this economic approach digestible and provide a resource for activists to effectively explain it.
Commenting on the newsletter collaboration, MacIntyre-Kemp said: “The world needs a new economic approach, last century's ideas of left and right offer no solutions to the problems of this century, especially climate change.
"Scotland needs a unifying socioeconomic vision that aligns with the core values of our nation and unlocks to door to Scotland's independence.
“So, let’s talk about the kind of nation we want an independent Scotland the be, let's talk about reinventing Scotland with a wellbeing economic approach.”
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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