James Kelly MSP

Last week, Nicola Sturgeon came to the Scottish Parliament and delivered her party’s 11th programme for government.

While the first minister promised an ambitious agenda, instead she only tinkered round the edges of what must be done, refusing to make bold use of the powers of our parliament to stop the cuts and tackle poverty.

The programme itself lacks any sort of original thought, proving that after 10 years of mismanagement the SNP is running out of ideas.

However, it seems that the SNP has been inspired by a number of issues Labour has championed, such as a soft opt-out Organ Donation Bill - despite the fact that SNP MSPs voted against a Labour MSP’s private members bill to establish such a system and a Scottish Investment Bank which was a key policy of our 2017 manifesto.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Perhaps the greatest example of the SNP’s brass neck is its new commitment to end the one per cent pay cap on public sector workers, something Scottish Labour has been calling on for some time.

Readers should not forget that it was only in May when every single SNP MSP voted against our proposal to give public sector workers a fair pay rise.

It, like other aspects of this programme is welcome, but it is too little too late.

It was also disappointing to see what was not included.

The Nationalists still refuse to use the tax powers at their disposal to end austerity – like increasing child benefit.

Also worth noting is the lack of any commitment to scrap the unfair council tax or drop their plans for an unwanted second referendum on independence.

Crucially, the first minister failed to offer any major solutions to the problems facing our NHS, despite it becoming clear that local services are at breaking point.

Readers will know from this paper how often local people are suffering as a result of the SNP’s decade of shame in running our health service.

It is time that the SNP stops window-dressing and begins to govern for the many, using the powers of our parliament to improve people’s lives across Scotland.