Budgets failed to tackle real issues

Last week’s UK budget was a triumph of spin over substance – but that spin won’t put food on the table of families facing huge energy price rises and the highest inflation rates in well over a decade.

By getting the bad headlines out of the way weeks ago, the Chancellor was able to pretend his plans were entirely positive.

It would be hard to credit this was the same man breaking pledges to pensioners, hiking National Insurance rates for virtually every worker in the country, and slashing Universal Credit by over £1,000 a year for the poorest in our society.

Instead, everything was coming up roses – including the tax cuts on Champagne which were sure to be a hit with Boris & Co.

The reality is this was a budget that plainly failed to tackle the major systemic issues facing our society – rising fuel prices, food shortages, and the chaos caused by Brexit.

There were some positives – the funding for transport links at the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District, and the extra support for facilities for lorry drivers will hopefully begin to make up for the years of neglect suffered by workers around the UK.

But, overall, it was a budget that ignored the realities faced by millions of households and thousands of businesses across the country.

It was also a budget that ignored the fact that COP26 is taking place in our country.

I can’t remember a time – save perhaps for the 2014 independence referendum – when the eyes of the world were so firmly on our country and what is happening on the Clyde right now.

Yes there’s been a big degree of disruption – but this summit could be the start of a permanent move in how we tackle climate change and how the world can move away from disaster.

In Scotland, we have a great chance to continue to lead the way as we transition to being a net zero society with all the economic benefits that could bring as new technologies and innovations come online.

But, as the UK’s decision to refuse to support the ACORN carbon capture project at St Fergus proved once again, we are being hampered by a Westminster government more concerned with capturing votes down south.

More and more, we are seeing how Scotland and the UK have different interests and different goals. It’s time our system of government and our relationships with the rest of the world better reflected that.