AS LABOUR Health Minister Wes Streeting admitted prior to the general election, all roads lead back to Westminster.
Except when the anti-independence parties and their allies in the Scottish media are blaming the Scottish Government for cuts which it has been forced to make against its will by fiscal decisions made in London, by Conservative and now Labour governments.
They have squeezed the Scottish block grant like an avaricious boa constrictor, refusing to keep the grant rising in line with inflation which ran rampant due to British Government mismanagement, a cut to the block grant in real terms.
That same British Government has refused to allow Holyrood anything other than the most limited tax raising and borrowing powers but also imposes on the Scottish Government a legal obligation to balance its budget, an obligation it does not impose upon itself.
Yet when the Scottish Government is unable to balance the books, due to a combination of a block grant which has been ruthlessly squeezed by Westminster, and pay rises demanded by unions representing public sector workers who are suffering due to a cost of living crisis made in Westminster.
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All of a sudden the Scottish Government is the body responsible for the 'mismanagement' of Scotland's finances, when the truth is that the ultimate responsibility for Scotland's finances rests with the British Government.
Yesterday, Scottish finance secretary Shona Robison outlined a package of £500 million in Scottish budget cuts, forced upon the country by Conservative squeezes on the block grant and the recent pay rises awarded to public sector workers in an effort to ward off strikes.
The financial difficulties of the Scottish Government were only compounded by the decision of Rachel Reeves to axe the universal winter fuel payment for pensioners which resulted in a further loss of £160m in Barnett consequentials.
Reeves (below) made this decision without consulting with the Scottish Government.
The arrogant high handedness which characterised the previous Tory government's treatment of Holyrood was not amongst those things covered by Keir Starmer's promise of “change”, but then neither were an end to Tory fiscal rules, getting rid of cronyism, or making Westminster more democratic.
Perhaps we should not be too surprised. It's not like Scotland was ever high up on Starmer's list of priorities, indeed since the SNP's defeat in July's election, Scotland has been firmly shifted into the ignore bin.
We are now facing a new era of austerity, Labour austerity, an austerity forced upon us by the decision of Keir Starmer and Reeves to adhere to Tory fiscal rules and to pretend that they are dealing with a glorified version of a household economy, and not one of the largest economies in the world, moreover one possessing a central bank and the literal ability to conjure money out of thin air.
Meanwhile Labour, just like the Conservatives before it, is more concerned about protecting the profits of the rich than defending the incomes of the poor.
The blame for these decisions is then devolved to Holyrood while the Scottish Government does its best to shield Scotland from the consequences of Westminster's decisions. One of those decisions is Starmer's shameful choice not to abolish the abhorrent two child cap on benefits.
Speaking yesterday in the wake of Robison's announcement, First Minister John Swinney (below) stressed that notwithstanding the budgetary constraints, the priority of the Scottish Government will remain tackling child poverty.
He said: “No one’s opportunities should be determined by the circumstances they are born into, which is why this year’s Programme for Government will prioritise measures focused on our single greatest priority of eradicating child poverty.
“To do this, we will support the whole family in ensuring they can access the help they need, when they need it.
“We already have a strong track record of improving the lives of children across Scotland, including through our game-changing Scottish Child Payment and expansion of early learning and childcare.”
The Scottish Child Payment has been widely hailed -although not by BBC Scotland - as an effective measure against child poverty.
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Research carried out by the Child Poverty Action Group has shown that poorer families in Scotland are £28,000 better off by the time their child turns 18, compared to equivalent families in other parts of the UK.
Today in Holyrood the First Minister announced the Scottish Government's programme for government, the Scottish Parliament's equivalent of the King's Speech, albeit one delivered without the faux mediaeval flummery invented by Victorian imperialists which is so beloved of Westminster.
He stressed that with the budgetary constraints imposed by Westminster there is no more money to be put on the table to settle pay disputes between councils and unions. Yesterday the Unison union, which has close ties to the Labour party and which is one of Starmer's biggest funders, donating over £350,000 to Labour last year said its members who work for local councils in Scotland had voted overwhelmingly to reject the latest pay offer from local government body Cosla.
Unison now has mandates for strike action by waste and recycling workers at 13 councils and for education and early years staff in five councils.
Yet Swinney has said there was nothing more that the Scottish Government could do to increase the pay offer.
He said: “We’ve put our offers on the table in support of individual workforces, we have maximised the resources available, it’s pretty obvious from the announcements we made yesterday that we’ve had to make some pretty tough decisions to make that possible, and no more decisions can be taken to increase the resources available.
Maybe Unison ought to take it up with Reeves and pressure the Labour government that the union so generously funds to introduce a wealth tax which would provide more than enough to ensure that local government workers receive the pay rises that they need.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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