Cash tight – but not for Indy bid

SO, last week’s Scottish Budget – overshadowed by the man who wasn’t there – has shown the SNP’s real priorities. Councils receiving only half the uplift they requested, the police federation furious at being the second largest force in the UK yet handed only the sort of money to fix crumbling stations ‘of a small English county’, while drug and alcohol campaigners were so upset that the head of one Scottish recovery charity called for the public health minister to resign. Where was there more money? Well, an extra £4 million of taxpayers’ cash was going to go towards boosting the case for independence, including increasing propaganda. The SNP wants to behave like the country is independent already, with globetrotting diplomacy and overseas aid, by adding millions to the international affairs budget – despite such powers being reserved. Shameless.