There is no evidence that Scotland cannot afford to be an independent country, according to an English economist.

Political economist and chartered accountant Richard Murphy said the "simple and straightforward answer" to the question "Can Scotland afford to be independent?" is "Yes" in a recent video on the subject.

Murphy, who is also a visiting professor of accounting at Sheffield University and an economic justice campaigner, pointed to similar-sized nations in Europe and around the world that are thriving.

He first points to New Zealand as an example of a country that is prospering due to "great political leadership" in their prime minister Jacinda Ardern who has been praised for keeping a strong grasp on coronavirus with the country recording just 26 Covid deaths.

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Murphy said that New Zealand is "fortunate that it is ring-fenced from some of the impacts of coronavirus, but only fortunate to the extent that it made its own good fortune".

Another comparable country, much closer to home, is Denmark. Murphy said: "It is one of the happiest countries on Earth, incomes are much higher than in Scotland, although the actual physical benefits of being Danish as opposed to being Scottish in terms of the oil inheritance, the renewable resource inheritance and so on, is remarkably similar."

In Iceland Murphy notes that the country is much smaller than Scotland in terms of population, but was still able to navigate an economic crisis and come out of the other side.

He said: "If we go down the scale, we can even go to a country like Iceland and point out that 325,000 people there seem to be able to manage their own affairs quite well, without any difficulty and have, for example, come through crises like that which the banking crisis of 2008 made there when they did effectively go bankrupt because they were so over-geared with regards to their financial services sector, and yet from which they have recovered.

"Again, because of good political leadership, they are clearly successful, and we can see that inside other states within Europe, particularly some of the former Soviet bloc states, which have become independent and are doing quite well.” 

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Murphy went onto say that there is no evidence that a country of Scotland's relative position, with a stable government and economy, has ever failed as a consequence of becoming independent.

He said: "Is there any chance that it will fail because of that - putting it in a category all by itself in the entire world? No. 

"Can Scotland, therefore, afford to become independent? Of course it can. It's a simple straightforward statement of fact that Scotland is comparable to these other countries and it will survive just as they do. Of course, with the odd bump and scrape along the way, every country has those. But absolutely, Scotland can afford to become independent."