The BBC Presenter posted a thread on Twitter detailing the latest Index of Social and Economic Wellbeing that showed Scotland has plummeted down the world rankings of developed countries in ranking of national wellbeing. The report, compiled by a leading Scottish economist, showed Scotland has fallen five places, from 16th to 21st, in the list of 32 countries who are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The ranking relates to tests on a string of measures including income, life expectancy and education.

The report found Scotland, which now sits in the bottom half of the list and is on par with Slovenia, has “underperformed” in many fields since Scots voted for devolution in 1997.

John McLaren, of Scottish Trends, found only Scotland, Greece and Finland had fallen in their overall scores on the index, which looked at economic growth per capita, educational ability, life expectancy and employment across the 32 countries between 2006 and 2018.

The report laid out how Scotland scored 2.08 in 2018, a drop of 0.5 since 2006.

It ranks number 21 in a list topped by Switzerland (3.38), Norway (2.01) and Japan (3.00).

The average life expectancy, which stands at 79 years, was noted as Scotland’s weakest area of performance.

Education was also cited as an area of concern.

Mr McLaren, who started the index in 2017, blamed Scotland’s low ranking on Holyrood’s lack of accountability.

The economist said: “There is a lack of being held to account over policy decisions, in other words too little scrutiny and proper evaluation of the actions of the Scottish government.

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“This is down to a variety of shortcomings, including a weak committee system in the parliament, a lack of academic involvement, a dearth of think tanks, poorly funded political parties and a declining and underfunded media presence.”

He also said badly funded opposition parties at Holyrood has led to the inhibition of alternative policy ideas: “Outside of the SNP, Scotland’s political parties are either small operations or in effect branch operations of UK parties and in both cases poorly funded.”

“This has inhibited the development of alternative policy ideas and led to a lack of political competition, as their operations are relatively ineffectual in challenging the well-funded and civil service-supported (in technical terms), SNP-led government.”

Scottish MPs have hit out at Nicola Sturgeon’s government for allowing Scotland to fall down the rankings.

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Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: “Yet again Scotland is plummeting down another league table thanks to the ineffective policies of the SNP. It has a great opportunity to turn this around with next month’s budget.

“With a UK windfall on its way, now is the time for the SNP to grow the Scottish economy, support our public services and improve the lives of millions of Scots.”

Similarly Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie, said: “Our Government has failed to get to grips with fundamental challenges facing our economy and society.

“Unless there is a change of approach, we will continue to fall further behind our international compatriots.”

When discussing the report on Twitter, Mr Neil also referred to data published by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) last month which showed no improvement in science and maths performance in Scotland.

The PISA results saw Scotland achieve its lowest scores in maths and science since it first took part in the survey almost 20 years ago.

The Pisa figures are produced every three years and record the performance of 600,000 15-year-olds from 79 countries and regions across the world in these three areas.

Scottish schools were given an average score of 489 for maths and 490 science and showed Scottish pupils were trailing their peers in England who scored an average of 504 and 506 respectively.

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