Post-Covid cuts may wreck SNP’s spending plans ... and the union

ALL political parties resort to retail politics, but no one does it better than the SNP. They could give Amazon a run for their money.

Alex Salmond started it all back in 2007 by scrapping prescription charges and bridge tolls, abolishing university tuition fees and promoting free personal care for the elderly – which was actually a Labour policy that the SNP Government got the credit for. It was massively successful and the SNP never looked back.

Nicola Sturgeon carried on the tradition last week in her 2021 election manifesto. She promised to scrap NHS dental charges, double the £10 child payment and extend free school meals to all primary pupils.

There will be free iPads for school students, free bus travel for under-22s, and wraparound childcare for schoolage children. Then there is that four per cent pay award for nurses and 20% more for the NHS.

Some of the giveaways aren’t quite as generous as they appear. Anyone visiting one of our semi-privatised dental practitioners soon discovers that many of the treatments you want are not available on the NHS. The 20% uplift for the NHS is not as transformative as claimed. At 2.1% a year it is little more than recent average increases, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and is actually less than the 3.4% that is being introduced by the Tory Government in England.

One hundred thousand houses over 10 years isn’t exactly earth-shattering or mould-breaking.

However, I don’t want to sound too negative. There is a big increase in spending on various benefits. Many of the measures, like free school meals and the child payment are humane and progressive. But there are a lot of free things already offered on a universal basis and it all comes with a price tag – which unfortunately the SNP chooses not to reveal.

Since there is no corresponding tax increase – indeed the manifesto has promised a freeze on income tax – so the assumption must be that it is all coming courtesy of Rishi Sunak and the Barnett Formula (what a name for a band that would make). This may not be sustainable.

Of course, under independence all would be well in the best of all possible worlds and no-one would need to count the cost.

Ms Sturgeon’s manifesto offerings stretch far beyond the lifetime of this Parliament and into the brave new world of Scottish independence. The prospect of a four-day week – a trial is planned – is presumably a hint of how things could be were the Scottish Government in full economic control.

Then there’s the Big One: universal basic income. This is strictly offered on an independence-only basis.