Mundane rather than radical laws

Nicola Sturgeon made mental health the big ticket issue of a Programme for Government which comes after a summer recess that has been trying to say the least.

After all the publicity surrounding Alex Salmond, the First Minister must be desperate to get back on to more constructive business.

Few will quibble with her plans to provide more support to youngsters facing mental health challenges. But the importance of tackling this vital issue was only emphasised by yesterday’s figures showing Scotland was facing its worst ever performance on child and adolescent mental health times.

Overall, there were few headline grabbers such as her ambitious plan, announced this time last year, to phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2032. Sure there were more nods in that direction, but little that was really radical.

The lacklustre nature of the 12 bills unveiled yesterday, many of which were on the cards already, only fed into opposition claims that this is a government which has run out of steam.

Moreover as many were eager to point out last year’s big ticket of a bill promising education reform has since been shelved by John Swinney. Meanwhile concern about the “crisis” in Scotland’s classrooms has only escalated. The education secretary has argued that he can deliver reform without legislation. But that remains to be seen.

No wonder that Ruth Davidson claimed that judging from the fall out from the 2017 Programme for Government, this year’s needs to be taken with a “gritter load of salt”.