Raise a glass to this pro-Union Budget

RISHI Sunak’s Budget was a shot in the arm for the Union and a reason to celebrate after 18 tumultuous months.

He even made it easier to raise a glass to his cash injection with an overhaul of alcohol duty, while a planned hike in whisky duty was scrapped. But it’s a measure of his party’s commitment to the Union that funding for the Scottish Government has been increased by £4.6billion.

That equates to around £126 per person for every £100 per person of UK Government spending in England. It’s the largest block grant since devolution under the Barnett formula, while we will also benefit from an investment of more than £170million via the Levelling Up Fund.

The contrast with the SNP’s bleak prospectus for Scotland under independence, and the hyper-austerity it would bring, could hardly be starker.

But it was reassuring to hear the Chancellor go further and highlight that our partnership of nations is about more than the ‘indisputable fiscal’ dividends. Rather, it’s about ‘our collective history, our culture and our security’, while ‘we are, and always will be, one family, one United Kingdom’.

Such an unequivocal statement of support is a powerful antidote to the steady diet of grievance from Nicola Sturgeon’s administration. Yet the SNP’s Commons leader Ian Blackford dismissed the Budget as ‘full of smoke and mirrors’, with many families worse off as a result of ‘Tory cuts and tax hikes’.

It is a knee-jerk assessment that ignores the fiscal calamity that would be visited on Scotland under his own party’s separatist plans. In reality, the Union has guided us through the darkness of a pandemic that turned our lives upside down.

Mr Sunak’s cut in business rates is another much-needed fillip after the damage inflicted on our high streets by lockdowns.

In Scotland, retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation businesses have been spared rates throughout this financial year but this must be extended beyond next April.

A failure to do so would sound the deathknell for battered businesses desperate for respite from a punitive regime. As Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross writes on this page: ‘Now it’s time for Nicola Sturgeon to step up, stop deflecting, and start delivering for people across Scotland.’

Some of the worst predictions of postCovid economic catastrophe were clearly overstated, and Mr Sunak presented an optimistic picture of coming months as Britain bounces back from the ravages of coronavirus. The economy could return to pre-Covid levels at the turn of this year and unemployment is forecast to peak at 5.2 per cent – less than half the 12 per cent rate previously feared.

But it’s undeniable that the cost of living will rise, with inflation expected to increase to 4 per cent, while rocketing energy bills will put pressure on household finances.

Doubtless there are tumultuous times ahead, but it’s clear that the Union, bolstered by this Budget, will continue to provide safe harbour for Scotland.