THE SNP’s revised blueprint for an independent Scotland is to be published next week.
The party’s Growth Commission, set up by Nicola Sturgeon in late 2016, is expected to deliver its long-awaited report on Friday.
It will focus on ways of growing the economy, the public finances and the potential currency in Scotland after independence, all key issues where the Yes campaign proved vulnerable in the 2014 referendum.
The First Minister has also asked the Commission to look at ways of growing the economy after Brexit.
Chaired by former MSP Andrew Wilson, the Commission includes Finance Secretary Derek Mackay, academics and business people.
READ MORE: SNP growth commission hit by lobbying row
Mr Wilson gave an early clue to the Commission’s radical intent when he revealed last year that it would take a sharply different approach to North Sea oil revenues.
The SNP White Paper on independence assumed receipts of up to £7.9bn in 2016/17, the putative first year of independence, but the oil price slump cut them to zero.
Mr Wilson said the economic case for independence should not assume any income from oil, and admitted North Sea receipts had been “baked” into the White Paper’s figures, thereby cutting the forecast deficit, rather than being a true “bonus” as many SNP figures had claimed.
Revealed: Sturgeon's Growth Commission looks to New Zealand
The report’s appearance, after repeated delays, comes amid splits in the SNP and Yes movement over the timing of a second referendum.
Senior party figures such as MP Pete Wishart have urged delaying a new vote until the SNP has rebuilt its case for independence and there is more popular support for it.
However others argue Ms Sturgeon should use the “triple lock mandate” she says she has for a referendum before it expires at the 2021 Holyrood election.
Tom Gordon: Will the SNP's Growth Commission be worth the wait?
Two of the three candidates in the contest to become Ms Sturgeon’s SNP deputy are calling for a referendum before 2021.
After calling for a fresh vote last year in light of Brexit, Ms Sturgeon "reset" her plans in the wake of SNP losses in the general election.
She is due to update Holyrood on a revised “precise timescale” for a new vote in the autumn.
However Theresa May is highly unlikely to grant Holyrood the power it needs to hold a referendum, especially as her government is reliant on the Northern Ireland unionists of the DUP.
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