Scotland is being urged to try a flat tax. The call comes from Dave Clarkson, tax chief at the Scottish branch of accountants Price Waterhouse Coopers. Like the ASI, he opts for a radical, simple way out of the mire of tax complexity. He urges (in a Times report) a flat tax above a threshold of £10,000 p.a.

Would it work? Yes, it probably would. Scotland could become a magnet for investment and entrepreneurs. A benign tax regime would enable it to become a latter-day Hong Kong, with a favourable climate for economic high-fliers. The talent drain from Scotland might be reversed, and Scotland could become the preferred location of international investors as well as its home-produced achievers. None of this might last long, however, if other nations rushed to emulate Scotland’s success with flat taxes of their own.

Could the Scots do it? No, they probably could not. The Scottish Assembly has tended to diverge from England in increases in regulation and collective spending, not decreases. In the days of Adam Smith and the century which followed, Scotland made great waves in invention, economic development, and trade. More recently, alas, it has tended to prefer a socialist outlook rather than an entrepreneurial one. Flat Tax may be the coming thing to unloose the creative forces of enterprise, but it is unlikely to happen in Adam Smith’s home country.