Even the OECD has finally noticed. The Paris-based policy forum is normally always in favour of higher taxes and more government spending. But the Scottish parliament has clearly pushed even the left-leaning think tanks too far. The OECD has just recommended that MSPs be given training in financial literacy.
If the OECD gets its way, there could soon be a classroom outside the Holyrood building, and any MSPs who don’t do their prep will have to stay behind. As part of a review of the Scottish Fiscal Commission, it has recommended that the country’s politicians be trained in finance and economics. ‘Strengthening levels of fiscal literacy among members of the Scottish parliament will also enhance the impact of the SFC’s work and help it inform political debate across a broader range of spending areas’, it notes.
The OECD certainly has a point. Scotland’s political class is among the most economically illiterate in the world.
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