The problem is that Scotland under the SNP is not particularly business-friendly. The disaster that is the Deposit Return Scheme and the plan to ban alcohol advertising are just two examples of the Scottish government being entirely uninterested in the needs of the private sector.

Add in the hostility to North Sea oil and gas, the rent controls in the residential sector, the new licensing scheme for short-term lets, and you can see why the private sector doesn’t feel very loved.

And for all the relentless hyping up of Nicola Sturgeon’s long reign, the government he inherits isn’t very popular either. The latest Scottish Political Pulse survey from Ipsos shows 50 per cent of Scots think that “generally speaking things in Scotland are headed in the wrong direction.” Only 25 per cent think it is headed in the right direction, the rest don’t know. That number rises slightly for SNP voters – to 37 per cent – but even that is down from 44 per cent earlier in the year.

The National Health Service is a particular bugbear. Not a good look for Yousaf, who is currently in charge of health. On improving living standards, the numbers are equally awful (21 per cent say good job, 45 per cent say bad job), as are those for education and the economy. Sturgeon won’t be thrilled to be leaving these numbers behind – hers is a genuinely lousy legacy – and Yousaf won’t be thrilled to be starting out with such a whopping headwind.

The real surprise, though, is that there are still some who think Scotland has been run well. NHS waiting lists are at all-time highs; Scotland has the highest level of drug deaths in Europe; one in five children still live in relative poverty; there has been no closing of the attainment gap; educational standards have fallen; and the economic future looks bleak. Scottish GDP is forecast to fall 1.2 per cent this year and expand slowly over the long term. Business activity fell in January for the sixth month in a row.

On current trends, say the Scottish Fiscal Commission, GDP growth in Scotland will come in at about 1.2 per cent a year over the next 50 years; government spending will rise 123 per cent even as GDP rises only 72 per cent; the population will decline; and one in three Scots will be over 65 (it is one in five at the moment). Sounds unsustainable? It is.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters