FEW people will have envied Shona Robison’s task of presenting the Scottish Government's financial position to Holyrood this afternoon.
In doing so, Robison correctly named and shamed her enemy. If the Tories were bad for Scotland, then it looks likely that Labour are going to be worse. The combined pressure created by a terrible devolved financial settlement for the current year, coupled with inevitable and necessary public sector pay increases that will in a great many cases exceed the 3% allocated for these purposes, means that Robison faces almost insurmountable difficulties which it is clear that the Labour Government in Westminster is not willing to assist her with.
What Robison had no choice but do as a result was to announce significant cuts in Scottish Government spending. By far the biggest of these came from cutting much of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment to match the similar cut being imposed by Labour in England. Much of the rest comes from freezing almost all recruitment in the Scottish Government and its agencies and from cuts in capital spending in Scotland, which will now be well below levels required to replace Scotland’s public infrastructure. The hint was given that more means testing of benefits and services might also be required.
READ MORE: Shona Robison announces £500 million of Scottish Government cuts
Robison was at her best when throwing the need for these cuts at Labour’s door. And Robinson was right to make clear that the real blame for austerity in Scotland lies with Westminster, whoever is in power, because of its failure to provide the Scottish Government with either adequate borrowing powers or taxation powers that might let it increase charges on those either with wealth or with high income and gains derived from wealth.
The undeniable fact is that Westminster is not providing nearly sufficient funds to meet the needs of the people of Scotland. The good news is that Robinson said this.
The bad news is that the devil in what happens next will be in the detail, and there is little indication as to just that detail will be as yet. The Scottish Budget is not until December.
READ MORE: Great British Energy 'to be based in Aberdeen'
But all this being noted, I think Shona Robison fell short. She made the usual SNP mistake of not comparing what she wants to do with what she is able to do because Westminster is preventing it from happening. It’s no good saying bad things are going to happen in Scotland without then saying precisely how the SNP could make things better if only they had the chance to do so, whether as a result of a significantly enhanced devolved settlement or as a consequence of independence.
Robison could have laid out her agenda for capital gains tax reform, the reform of inheritance tax, the reform of land taxation in Scotland, and the reform of energy taxation to exploit Scotland’s best potential. She could also have made clear how she might have spent the additional funds that she could have realised by doing so. Instead, whilst she took her attack to Labour, she never delivered the killer blow that will be essential if the SNP are to have any chance of winning the Holyrood election in 2026.
Robison could have delivered a lot more than she did today. Instead, she left open the question now being asked of the SNP, which is what difference do they really make? There was no answer to that question today.
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