Budget bunkum

AMONG the SNP’s greatest achievements has been its success in spinning the myth that it displays an uncommon competence in Government.

Year after year, Nationalist MSPs make quite the song and dance about their Finance Secretary’s balancing of the Budget, as if this were a peculiarly brilliant outcome rather than a mundane legal requirement.

Meanwhile, holyrood ministers lambast the UK Government for efficiency savings while proposing an independence plan that would necessitate unprecedented cuts to public services.

The truth is that the SNP has been reckless with public finances, putting ill-thought-out policies such as free prescriptions for all – including the wealthy – before any real consideration of the implications of its decisions.

This tendency to put headlines before analysis stands to cost hard-working Scottish families dear. In his most recent Budget statement, Finance Secretary Derek Mackay announced that councils would be allowed to increase the salaries of workers by up to 3 per cent.

This was undoubtedly good news for those employed by the public sector but what Mr Mackay did not do while making his display of largesse was to identify money set aside to fund these increases.

Now comes the sucker punch. Local authorities that wish to provide pay rises along the lines proposed by Mr Mackay will have to raise council tax in order to do so.

Yet again, the SNP’s famous ‘competence’ involves the party putting the squeeze on the middle classes.

There is no doubt that workers in both the public and private sectors have grown used to pay freezes along with rising living costs.

This being so, it’s completely wrong for the Government to raid the bank accounts of ambitious Scots in order to give council staff an unfair advantage.