How can it be that millions of Scots are struggling to pay essential bills?

It could be because economic growth as measured by GDP was never designed as a yardstick of a society’s success or otherwise. It only really measures financial flows (it’s the same in GDP terms whether you spend £10 billion to build affordable, quality social housing or on bagging yourself a gold-plated SUV with diamond-inlaid wheel trims, but one might just possibly be better than the other).

GDP growth is, however, constantly touted as a proxy for societal success – most often by those with money and power, because they seem to be profiting very nicely from the status quo, thanks very much.

In fact, growth-focused neoliberal economic policies are strongly linked to Scotland’s poor health, poverty and mortality indicators over the past 30 years, earning it the title of “the sick man of Europe”.

These indicators have worsened due to the ‘austerity agenda’ of reduced public spending, tax rises, and the privatisation of public services and/or the responsibility for care being transferred to individuals that has been UK government policy since 2010, and which continues to this day.