In a wide-ranging interview with Daily Business ahead of the new parliamentary term, Mr Begbie warns that Scotland cannot afford another five years of the same approach, arguing that taxes, broken business rates and a failure to sell the country abroad are choking investment and driving talent away.

He points to Spain’s “Beckham tax break” as the kind of creative thinking Scotland needs, revealing that ministers were approached about a similar scheme to lure senior professionals north, and flatly turned it down. He contrasts Ayr’s empty high street, where 40% of units lie vacant, with the bustling shopping districts of Melbourne and Hong Kong, where business rates are a fraction of Scotland’s.

Mr Begbie also discusses Scotland’s evolving role as a “tier two” financial centre competing with Boston and Montreal rather than Paris, the dramatic expansion of US banks like JP Morgan in Edinburgh, and why the current university funding model is pushing some of Scotland’s brightest students south – with two-thirds never returning.

Read the full interview here.