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Scotland's politicians are scrambling to piece together a coalition Government but when the dust settles in Holyrood, whoever takes charge will have to answer tough questions about the economic future.
With its heavy reliance on public spending, and oil and gas output already past its peak, Scotland is
in need of an economic renaissance. For the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), who pipped Labour to the post by a single seat, floating free of the rest of the United Kingdom is the answer - and Ireland, the "Celtic tiger", provides an alluring blueprint for success.
Much of Scotland is far from tiger-like. Despite its history as an economic powerhouse, it suffered badly from the early eighties onwards when Britain's manufacturing sector began its long, painful decline. Angry resentment about oil revenues flowing south to the Westminster Parliament in London increased the bitterness of workers laid off in their thousands.
By the second half of the nineties, a thriving financial services industry and a flood of investment from foreign hi-tech firms into what became known as Silicon Glen was helping to boost Scotland's performance.
When the dotcom downturn came after 2001, Scotland was badly affected and its growth rate has continued to lag the rest of the UK.
The SNP believes the key to future economic success is using the tax powers that would come with independence to slash corporation tax, attract more foreign investment and kick-start economic growth. During the election campaign, they tempted voters with the prospect of following Ireland's lead.
Seizing the tax revenues from Scotland's offshore oil and gas fields, and using them to help offset the loss of taxpayer subsidies from London, has long been at the heart of the SNP's programme but they also promised to stoke economic growth and, since devolution in 1999, have looked across to Ireland for economic inspiration.
The Irish model looks impressive but, with an increasing number of countries now cutting their corporation tax rates, the battle for investment is harder to win.
"They would be Johnny-come-latelies," says Brian Ashcroft, of Strathclyde University, who studies the Scottish economy.
When it began its dash for growth, Ireland was also lagging much farther behind the rest of the UK than Scotland does now. With its long-established financial services sector, and several new industries, including life sciences and renewable energy, Scotland attracts more inward investment than any other region of the UK, apart from London and the southeast. On output per head, too, it is not too far behind the south of England.
Dougie Adams, economic adviser to Ernst & Young, says the stereotype of Scotland as a post-industrial wasteland of rusting shipyards and sink estates is out of date. Since 1997, 260,000 jobs have been created and the employment rate is now higher than the rest of the UK. "Scotland's a rich, prosperous place. Rural Scotland's suffering but rural Wales is suffering and I suspect rural Somerset is suffering too."
Ashcroft agrees. "There's more similarity between Scotland and the rest of the UK than difference and, where there are differences, a lot is driven by history and geography."
Scotland has 8 per cent of the UK's population, strung out across 38 per cent of its landmass. Delivering public services in the highlands and islands is inevitably expensive.
Edinburgh has had a strong financial services sector for many years, with venerable firms such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, but Glasgow, too, where businesses can qualify for state financial support, is now attracting banks and insurers.
"The financial services sector has grown extremely well in Scotland over the past six to seven years," says David Smith, of Scottish Development International. He points to a fast-growing life sciences sector as another success. Like Ireland, Scotland has begun to stem the traditional exodus of young people, with migration from Eastern Europe and the rest of the UK.
Abandoning the union need not be a prerequisite for an economic resurgence. Ashcroft says there is plenty a new Holyrood Government of any colour could do to stimulate a healthier Scottish economy, without winning independence from Westminster.
"The Scottish executive has considerable powers: in terms of spending, in terms of legislation, there are all sorts of things you can do - on bankruptcy law and so on, policies to stimulate innovation and R&D - most of those levers lie here."
Ashcroft believes Gordon Brown could ease some of the pressure for economic separatism by allowing Edinburgh to set its own corporate tax rates - so that companies might be encouraged to look north for investment opportunities. "This is a Government that argues for tax competition within Europe but wants to stop that at our borders."
Some experts believe relying on foreign investment could also leave Scotland vulnerable to a downturn. "You're open to the possibility that you might get a fast growth rate but, equally, you're open to external shocks," says Ashcroft.
Judging by the SNP's narrow victory, Scotland's voters may be willing to take their chances.
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