When a decline in business activity in Scotland’s private sector can be construed as good news, this speaks volumes about the scale of the challenges we face amid the UK’s economic malaise.

The fall was revealed in Royal Bank of Scotland’s PMI (purchasing managers’ index) report, published last Monday.

What was heartening about it was that it was only a modest decline, with Scotland faring second-best out of 12 UK nations and regions.

Only London managed to grind out growth in September, with the decline in business activity in Scotland’s private sector less steep than the drops in all of the other 10 nations and regions.

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What is more, only Scotland and Northern Ireland achieved growth in private-sector employment last month.

So anyone with an interest in Scotland’s prosperity should surely be relieved that things are not worse.

Many might think things are worse in Scotland than they actually are, given that doomsaying seems to be a hobby for many north of the Border, in many cases for political reasons.

What is inescapable, however, is that the UK as a whole faces unenviable challenges.

These challenges have arisen in part out of global factors but they are also in large measure the result of inept policymaking by the Conservatives when it comes to the economy.

Brexit continues to have a huge impact, hampering exporters because of the loss of frictionless trade with the huge European Economic Area and fuelling skills and labour shortages with the ending of free movement of people between the UK and EEA.

It has also exacerbated the UK’s inflation woe, sending food prices and the cost of imports higher.

Then we have the dearth of growth-orientated policies from the Conservatives, with Jeremy Hunt continuing to look in every way like the sort of austerity chancellor we had in George Osborne. In between times, of course, Rishi Sunak was in this role, and that was a period in which the Tories also seemed intent on being a drag on growth rather than in any way having an interest in fostering expansion for the greater good.

It is important to remember that the Tory austerity that began in 2010 and sucked the life out of the economy remains very much with us, whether that be in terms of the savage cuts to welfare or the hike in value-added tax or various other measures such as screwing down public sector pay.

Against this backdrop, you would think it would be easy for Labour to come up with an inspiring alternative.

However, at times Labour sounds far too much like the Conservatives when it comes to crucial economic matters.

Firstly, Labour now supports Brexit, so by extension seems content with the toll that has taken already and will continue to exact on the UK economy and living standards.

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It looks to be scared of upsetting the Brexit brigade. Labour’s recent penchant for displaying the Union Flag would tend to support this observation, in these days of elevated British nationalist sentiment.

And the lack of distinction between Labour and the Conservatives on the economy goes beyond Brexit of course.

That is not to say there are no significant points of difference. Of course there are, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer having at the party’s annual conference last week highlighted the importance of employment rights and investment in infrastructure.

What seemed to be missing, however, was an inspiring and convincing alternative, in terms of scale and boldness, to the Tories’ failed economic policymaking.

Of course, it would not take much at all to do a better job on the economy than the Conservatives. And it would take a special kind of incompetence to do a worse job.

However, in these difficult times, it would be good to see some far braver policies.

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Labour has seemed happy enough to accept the Tory yarn that money is tight and we’ll all jolly well just have to muck in and muddle through.

The fact of the matter is that any UK government has big choices on its policy mix.

Income tax could be increased, particularly for the actual high earners as opposed to those in the middle who always get squeezed, to raise money to fund, for example, the free university tuition in England that Sir Keir pledged, before he U-turned on this promise. Labour could also consider nudging corporation tax up a little further towards its 2010 rate, without making the UK uncompetitive. It is worth noting too that the banking, and electricity and gas supply sectors are also making major profits at the moment, boosted respectively by the surge in interest rates and higher energy prices, so the next UK government might well not be without revenue-raising opportunities.

Furthermore, what makes the biggest difference in boosting recovery in grim economic times such as these is putting more money into the pockets of those who have to spend all of what they have to live.

People on the lowest incomes have been hammered in recent years not only by welfare cuts - although we must never forget the monumental impact of these - but also by inflation and the Tory hike in VAT implemented more than a decade ago.

Given the dire straits in which the UK finds itself, not only in terms of its economic malaise but also the regrettable societal effects of Tory policies, it would have been good to see a far more courageous vision from Labour at its party conference.