Independent Scotland could boost economy '˜by having more sex'

An independent Scotland could grow its economy by persuading its citizens to have more children, a senior SNP MP has suggested.

Kirsty Blackman was speaking at the first day of the SNP conference in Aberdeen. Picture: John Devlin

Kirsty Blackman, the party’s economy spokeswoman at Westminster, said growing the country’s population should be a key priority in the wake of a future Yes vote.

“Denmark decided it would do a thing called ‘Do It For Denmark’”

She said this would be most easily achieved by increasing levels of immigration, but also said Scotland could follow the example of other nations by encouraging more reproduction.

“You can increase your population in two ways,” she told a fringe meeting at the party’s conference in Aberdeen. You can increase your population by people having more children, or you can increase your population by immigration.”

To laughter from delegates, she added: “Now, Denmark decided it would do a thing called ‘Do It For Denmark’. You know what, I had suggested that we could come up with something in relation to Scotland – I think there’s a good kind of alliteration that you could come up with there. That might win us some votes.

“But in the absence of that, in the absence of people being willing to have more children, what we need to do is to ensure that we get more immigration.”

In 2014 and 2015 a series of television adverts aired on Danish television encouraging more procreation, amid fears of low birth rates and an ageing population crippling public services.

One early viral hit was an advert entitled “Do It For Denmark” made by a travel company, while a later follow up was called “Do It For Mom”.