Expert slams SNP over business tax cuts

In a hard-hitting essay in the Scotsman newspaper, Mr Boyd slammed the SNP's "stubborn devotion to low taxes and apparent reticence in embracing anything that hints at radical change."

Mr Boyd attacked First Minister Alex Salmond for claiming in a recent Jimmy Reid Memorial Lecture that slashing corporation tax was entirely reconcilable with increases in social spending.

"The SNP has never managed to set out a convincing case for why cutting corporation tax in an independent Scotland would boost growth, jobs and revenues," he said.

"There is simply no precedent for the socially just, low tax model promulgated by the SNP.

Mr Boyd called for "solid ideas" on ways in which independence or additional powers for Holyrood might be "used creatively to develop Scotland's economy."

But he said: "There's been precious little of this stuff so far."

The STUC economist also demanded answers from the Better Together campaign on how Scotland's economy could develop as part of Britain in the event of a No vote in the 2014 referendum.

"The UK's 'financialised' economic model isn't working," Mr Boyd added.

"Can Scotland overcome these deeply embedded problems as part of the UK?

"If so, how?"

He added that a business culture of short-termism was to blame for a failure to support investment and innovation, while enabling executives to extract "extravagant, unwarranted rewards."