SNP austerity will cost Scotland dear

Sir, – In the wake of the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ report that Scotland faces a £3.5 billion shortfall because of its lavish spending commitments, the SNP Government admits that it will have to introduce a regime of cuts, also known as “austerity”.

Health and social spending are to be protected, but “non-priority areas” will bear the pain.

Incredibly, among “nonpriority areas” is education.

Ms Sturgeon’s regime has already admitted that the cast-iron ambition of closing the poverty-related attainment gap has been abandoned. Now, statefunded education will bear a share of the brunt of cuts.

This may be a cunning plan to induce more parents to enrol their children in private schools, thus saving the state money, but most Scots cannot do that.

As ever, the poorest will be left with a pareddown service and the opportunities that could have afforded children from poorer areas an escape from the cycle of poverty will be at least narrowed, if not closed off.

We have yet to hear whether Angus Robertson’s constitution department will feel the effects of this austerity. The tens of millions of pounds spent on its overseas propaganda operation, to disparage the UK and promote a separate Scotland, will doubtless be ring-fenced. After all, a new Scottish embassy is being opened in Warsaw this year, to add to the other nine already in existence.

This emergency has been caused by profligate spending on so-called “free” services which are very costly and on failed government business initiatives – we all know what they are: ferries, BiFab, steelmaking, a fake investment bank, railways and the rest – that demonstrate a mindboggling lack of competence in government at Holyrood.

As always, we pick up the tab and the poorest of us suffer disproportionately.

But I imagine Ms Sturgeon will have a good stab at trying to blame Westminster.

Jill Stephenson, Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

Angus Robertson.

Nicola Sturgeon.