Spreading prosperity

The perennial question of decentralising public sector jobs is raising its head again:

While the creation of jobs in locations away from the central belt has been welcomed by many, especially in rural areas, the policy has proved controversial among the workers themselves and the unions representing them.

What nobody ever seems to ask is why all of these jobs are in Edinburgh in the first place. The reason is straightforward: it's because they are public sector jobs, and Edinburgh is the seat of government. The same applies on a UK-wide basis with London being the beneficiary. Once pensions, the environment, housing, health, the arts, sport and education are liberated from the dead hand of the state, normal market forces will quickly decentralise economic activity to the great benefit of "other parts of Scotland".