Scottish Budget Outlined

It was a somewhat muted Stage One debate on the Scottish Government’s Budget for the coming year. This was both as a result of the preceding statement from the First Minister, laying out the programme of consultation on the independence referendum, and a budget which has so far had very few surprises.

The headline policies include;

• More than £750m transferred from resource expenditure into the capital investment programme
• £500 million allocated to preventative spending, through three “change funds”.
• Delivery of 25,000 modern apprenticeships and fund the ‘Opportunities for All’ programme to guarantee training or learning opportunity for every 16-19 year-old.
• Workers whose pay is controlled by the Scottish Government receive the Scottish Living Wage of £7.20 per hour.
• Maintain police and teacher numbers.

The Council Tax freeze will also continue for another year. While being promoted in the Chamber by John Swinney as a budget for growth, it is by and large a case of business as usual. This point was accentuated by Ken Mcintosh who faced his first major policy speech under his new brief as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance. In a considered speech, he expressed support for moving to preventative spending, the increased apprenticeships on offer, early intervention programmes and spending on the health service.

However, along with the other opposition parties, he rounded on the Scottish Government for cuts to housing and colleges budgets of 40% and 20% respectively. Last week’s unemployment figures were also used to argue that Ministers were not doing enough to create growth and jobs.

The Scottish Government of course countered these points, and argued that their hands continued to be tied by the UK Government and the on-going spending restrictions.

Budgets in previous years have had an element of surprise due to the SNP needing to negotiate with the other parties in order to get the Bill through Parliament. This is now no longer the case, and while John Swinney stated that it was his intention to create a Budget that could be supported by as many of the opposition parties as possible, it is unlikely that any changes made in the next month will be more than tinkering around the edges.

By Robert

SNP: Manifesto

The SNP unveiled its manifesto with a glitzy and impressive launch at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. The SNP decided to wait until a week after the other three major political parties to launch their portfolio of policies to the Scottish people. They are gambling that by launching last they will set the agenda for the run in and that voters have not gone deaf to the policy noise already.

Unsurprisingly, the party’s manifesto pledges to create a “renewables revolution”, including 130,000 low carbon jobs and 100% energy from renewables by 2020. Raising the bar on renewables yet again to see all of Scotland’s electricity needs delivered within a decade is a hugely challenging target. The document also has a focus on both the community benefit and community development of renewables as well.

Local Government finance has been an area of difficulty for the SNP over the last couple of years. They look as though they have locked themselves into some binding restrictions over the lifetime of the next Parliament. Firstly, they have committed to a five year freeze to the Council Tax. However, they have also introduced a Local Government funding floor. This will ensure that no Local Authority receives less than 85% of the Scottish average interms of Revenue Support. This will be funded by additional money from central government. As the block grant is squeezed over coming years this could be a challenging commitment to maintain.

The SNP will hope that this Council Tax commitment will be the type of populist commitment that will strike a chord with the electorate. Similar pledges include new investment in school building and the protection of the health budget. Here is a full list of the key commitments:

-        Freeze the Council Tax throughout the next Parliament.

-        Protect the NHS budget

-        Keep the 1000 extra police numbers

-        Take more money from criminals to give back to the communities they have damaged

-        Work to win new job-creating powers for the Scottish Parliament

-        Deliver an independence referendum

-        We will increase our renewables target to 100% by 2020, ensuring 130,000 jobs are delivered in the low-carbon economy

-        Provide 100,000 training opportunities each year including 25,000 modern apprenticeships

-        Keep university education free so that access to higher education

-        Deliver a fairer Scotland with a new £250 million Scottish Futures Fund, using the savings realised from the Forth Replacement Crossing

-        Provide  new investment in early years and a schoolbuilding programme

Interestingly, the SNP have clearly sought to reject claims that they are a ‘one man band’ in the document. The contents page has pictures of the SNP ministerial team, and John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon both write introductions to sections of the manifesto. The SNP clearly believe they have both a strong leader, and more impressive front bench team, and they want to this a clear dividing line with Scottish Labour.

Nevertheless, the First Minister features heavily in the document including an angelic photo of Salmond with some wind turbines in the background. Only the next few weeks will tell us if this manifesto launches the next golden chapter for Alex Salmond and the SNP, or acts as the final testament for one of the most talented politicians of his generation.

By Kenny

Scottish Conservatives: Manifesto Launched

This morning, Annabel Goldie became the first Scottish Leader to publish her party’s Scottish Election Manifesto.  Launching the manifesto at the Glasgow Science Centre, Ms Goldie claimed that the Conservatives were delivering “common sense” policies that tackled the need to cut the spending deficit, while offering practical help for hard pressed families, communities and businesses.

The headline commitments include:

-          Placing a duty on local authorities to promote economic growth  

-          Pledge to create 10,000 jobs by supporting Scottish businesses

-          Introducing a graduate contribution capped at £4,000

-          Abolish the Local Government Concordat and replacing it with a requirement upon councils to set out their own plans and report on progress.

-          Freezing public sector pay until April 2013 for those earning over £21,000 to protect jobs

-          Protect the Health budget and reintroduce prescription charges, injecting £37m into the NHS

-          Re-introduce prison sentences of less than 3 months, offer tougher community sentences and commit to a review of Scotland’s rehabilitation network

-          Maintaining police numbers and introduce directly elected police commissioners

-          A promise not to use current or future powers to increase Income Tax or introduce new taxes, while continuing the council tax freeze to at least 2013

Other notable commitments include lowering the school leaving age to 14, reinstating a modernised Right-to-Buy programme, a £200 Council Tax discount for pensioners, continue the party’s ‘transparency revolution’ and establish new cancer drug and IVF funds.

As expected the manifesto has a strong focus on economic growth, the need to tackle the deficit and job creation. It does, however, sidestep some thorny issues such as renewable energy where only very generic commitments are made. Additionally, while the some of the Party’s education and health policies may seem at first glance controversial, they have been widely trailed and publicised in recent months.

For those who believe the Conservatives cannot deliver on these promises, Goldie asked them to review her party’s success over the last parliament. More Police on the beat, help for families by backing the Council Tax freeze, supporting business through cuts to rates and establishing a national drugs strategy.

The Conservatives hope that by being upfront and ‘honest’ with the electorate, they will be rewarded in the polls. The problem remains though, what if the Party’s idea of commons sense is markedly different to that of the electorate.

This Week in Scotland

And we’re off. While your letter box may not have been bombarded with political leaflets (yet), the Scottish Election campaigns are well and truly underway. On Tuesday evening the leaders gathered in Glasgow for the first televised debate. There were no fireworks or major gaffes. The leaders each produced reasonable performances, despite a confusing format and hostile audience participation. Questions relating to higher education, skills, Megrahi and council tax were fielded and easily disposed of with well-rehearsed lines.

The Scotsman’s first hustings kicked off from where STV’s debate left off.  The leaders, with the exception of Annabel Goldie, proclaimed again their commitment to free higher education. However, this time the Chancellors of Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Universities were in the audience to vociferously challenge the party’s plans and statements on the sectors future ‘funding gap’. The argument is basically one of figures. The SNP claims the sector will only face a gap of around £90m whereas the Universities’ insist the figure is closer to £200m.

Alex Salmond is also coming under increasing pressure to reveal the ‘real’ financial implications of his party’s plans to introduce a Local Income Tax after it was revealed the SNP has twice gone to the Court of Session to block publication of the official documents outlining how much the levy would cost taxpayers. Iain Gray and Annabel Goldie have been quick to make hay out of this by stating that the SNP are trying to conceal the true cost to the taxpayer. The Local Income Tax was proposed as an alternative to council tax, however was dropped by the Scottish Government in 2009 after strong opposition by opposition parties.

STV Leaders Debate: Review

Last night the four candidates to be the next First Minister answered questions from a studio audience at Glasgow’s Piping Centre, being broadcast by STV. Bernard Ponsonby was an assured and accomplished chair, even if he was let down by a set that resembled an early prototype for the Krypton Factor. Also, the format seemed to allow slightly confused and aggressive audience participation. The candidates were also not given the chance to give either opening or closing statements. It will be interesting to see if the next BBC debate differs from this at all.

Key issues

Council Tax – There was a discussion on the the Council Tax freeze and whether the freeze had actually been fully funded by the Scottish Government. Alternatives such as a Local Income Tax were also discussed.

Student education – We heard a lot about Scottish Solutions, tuition fees in London and the importance of free education. Plenty of mud was slung, but nobody gave a coherent plan for future funding, because none of the parties really have one.

Skills and employment – Iain Gray talked about these issues whenever he could. There was a broad endorsement of the importance of these issues by all these parties. Both Salmond and Gray highlighted their commitment to fund apprenticeships.

Megrahi – There was genuine discontent from the audience around the issue and it could prove to be an X Factor in these elections in the way the Iraq War was in 2007.

 

Candidate performances

Alex Salmond (SNP)

Polished and statesman like throughout. Almost universally accepted as the slickest presenter before the debate started, he did nothing to undermine this analysis. He gave a positive and compelling endorsement of his ministerial team as he rebuffed Iain Gray’s ‘one man band’ line. Displayed a good understanding of the issues around higher education funding and was managed to achieve one of the few moments in the debate where the rhetoric managed to gain some altitude. He handled the Megrahi issue fairly well, but if last night’s studio audience is an accurate barometer, there is still genuine anger amongst the voters regarding the release.

Iain Gray (Lab)

A solid start to the debate. He was aggressive in his attacks regarding the SNP’s failure to clear student debt. He also pivoted to Scottish Labour’s priority issues of jobs and growth in the early part of the debate. However, his stature seemed to diminish after the questioning about who would be the best First Minister. His ‘one man band line’ about the Alex Salmond’s leadership of the SNP never really seemed to find traction either. He was out performed by Salmond, but still managed to exceed the expectations of some skeptics before the debate.

Annabel Goldie (Con)

If nothing else Goldie is usually a politician with a refreshing distaste for obfuscation, however last night, there were a number of points where she did not answer questions in her usual direct manner. Also, she possibly found herself allying with the SNP too closely when promoting Scottish Conservative work in budgets. Her position on higher education may be unpopular, but her position was clearly elucidated and consistent last evening. In fairness, it was an admirably assured performance given the start the Scottish Conservatives have had to their campaign.

Tavish Scott (LD)

It was always going to be a difficult night for the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, and well it was. He said he wanted to replace the Council Tax with an alternative local tax but was unclear in explaining his alternative policy and why it would be preferable. Got into a bit of a spat about the value of the Amazon plant in Fife with Alex Salmond and was clearly on the losing side of the exchange. The increasing toxicity of the Lib Dem brand is a real problem for Scott, but he must do better next time.

Conclusion

The debate went much according to plan. Salmond reinforced his reputation as the most polished performer of the party leaders without quite blowing any of the candidates away. This was the opening salvo of what is going to be a drawn out and protracted campaign. Risk averse and cautious, we will have to wait until the later debates to see any fireworks.

By Kenny

This Week in Scotland

The Parliament returned from their last recess before its dissolution this week, and returned to matters of day-to-day legislating.  MSPs unanimously backed the Patient Rights (Scotland) Bill on Thursday declaring that patients in Scotland must be treated within a maximum of 12 weeks, as well as introducing  a legal right for patients to complain about their treatment. Critics have warned that such a timetable could force doctors to rush patients into treatment however. The waiting time of 12 weeks will start when a patient’s treatment has been agreed, and will apply to both day care and in-patient procedures. The passage of the Bill was warmly received across the parties as an example of the Parliaments’ aim to continue improving the standard of healthcare across Scotland.

Elsewhere, the Scottish Government launched a further update of its Economic Recovery Plan, with the aim of ensuring a shorter and shallower recession for Scotland. The measures announced by John Swinney include £36 million of spending to support another 10,000 jobs and 2,000 work and training opportunities and includes new housing investment and support for jobs in SMEs. In the announcement, the Minister also drew focus to the goal of profiling the Scottish economy towards sectors which have the potential to drive future growth, while highlighting successes such as green energy and international investment by large corporations.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives launched their election campaign with a pledge aiming to help the elderly by cutting £200 from pensioners’ council tax bill. In doing so, Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie highlighted the Tories’ role in securing the current council tax freeze, although the SNP may bristle slightly as they too feel the current freeze is very much at the heart of their achievements. Labour poured cold water on the credibility of the £140 million cost of these measures however, by drawing an immediate comparison with the large public sector cuts initiated by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government in Westminster.

And finally,  it has been announced that the four main party leaders will go head-to-head on three televised debates before May’s elections. STV will broadcast the first debate on March 29, while the BBC will host another on May 1, and STV holding the final debate on May 3 – two days before polling day. It’s safe to say the party leaders will be relishing this opportunity.

By Ken

This Week in Scotland

The Government is under fire today after it emerged that tax varying powers granted under the Scotland Act will not be available for use by the next Government until 2013-14, after the current SNP Government stopped paying HMRC the necessary fee to keep the collection system updated.  John Swinney explained that the option was ‘expensive and unusable’ and the government had been unwilling to invest in the update of the computer system required to keep the option available. Opposition parties have criticised the government for tying the hands of the next administration and ignoring the wishes of the Scottish people, who voted in favour of the tax varying power at the referendum on devolution which also approved the creation of the current Scottish Parliament.

John Swinney announced the Scottish Draft Budget to Parliament on Wednesday this week, The headline announcement are a public sector pay freeze for those earning over £21,000 and a controversial offer to Councils which would minimise cuts to the local government budget to 2.6% if they agreed to deliver key SNP priorities, including freezing Council Tax and maintaining police numbers. If Council leaders do not agree they face a cut of around 6.4%. Mr Swinney has also moved around £100 million into the capital budget to sustain infrastructure spending, including the Forth Crossing Project. The main criticism from all quarters is that the budget falls short as it only plans for the coming year. Normally, the budget includes spending projections for the coming three years, allowing bodies to plan ahead. Opposition parties have accused Mr Swinney of avoiding necessary decision to protect the SNP’s chances of re-election.

MSP’s on the specially created End of Life Bill Committee have rejected independent MSP Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill. Committee Convenor Ross Finnie stated that the committee had concluded that there are ‘several flaws in the Bill’, and that the definitions of end of life assistance was ‘confusing and arguably misleading’. Margo MacDonald accused the committee of opposing on principle and ignoring evidence with refuted their main concerns: “The most commonly expressed fears before the publication of the Bill…have been answered by the evidence of medical professionals from places where assisted deaths have been legal for a decade and more.” MSPs will debate and vote on the Bill next week.

Nick Clegg’s Fixed Term Parliament Bill could grant the Scottish Parliament the power to move their election date by up to six months in the event of clash with the Westminster elections. The changes would not affect next year’s election, which will clash with the Westminster referendum on the Alternative Vote System.  Using the rules could give the next administration an extra 6 months in power, and the following administration 6 months less, as a change of date at the start of one session would not affect the election  date for the following session.

In other news, Labour backbencher Hugh Henry has won Scottish Politician of the Year award. The Committee he convenes, the Public Audit Committee, also won Committee of the Year for the second year in a row.

By Sheelagh

Last Week in Scotland

 

The Scottish Parliament goes into recess this week to coincide with the Scottish party conferences. The Lib Dems kicked off conference season with a one day event in Dunfermline last weekend, which by all accounts had a greater buzz than previous years; probably as a result of their coalition role in Westminster.

The SNP are holding a four day event this week from Thursday to Sunday in Perth, and are expected to lambast the speed and depth of the cuts coming from Westminster. Deputy Leader, Nicola Sturgeon, announced in Perth on Thursday night that if re-elected, the SNP would extend the Council Tax freeze into next year and 2012-13.

The other big news this week is of course the fall-out of Lord Browne’s report on tuition fees. As prominent Scottish MPs Sir Ming Campbell and Charles Kennedy have both said they will fight the proposals, the Scottish Government joined student leaders in strongly criticising the report’s plan to lift the cap on tuition fees.  Education Secretary Mike Russell described the proposals as “transferring the cost of higher education from the state to the student “ and reiterated that the Scottish Government would not “have up front tuition fees”. Labour Education Des McNulty claimed that Scottish Higher Education institutions have been “left in the lurch” by the lack of proposals from the Scottish Government.  A green paper will be published in December outlining options for funding in Scotland.

Glasgow gears up for 2014 after the Commonwealth Games baton was handed over at the closing ceremony in Delhi last night. Glasgow’s Lord Provost Bob Winter received the Commonwealth flag as 352 volunteers from across Scotland performed in the closing ceremony.

The ‘Mackerel War’ continues as representatives from the EU, the Faroes and Iceland met without resolution in London on Thursday.  The Faroes and Iceland have both been warned they could face sanctions after unilaterally increasing their mackerel quotas.  Scots and Norwegian fisherman have warned the increases could seriously damage stocks. There will be further discussions at the end of the month in an attempt to resolve the issue.

By Sheelagh

This Week in Scotland

As the UK Government celebrates it first 100 days in office commentators have been reflecting on what this has meant to Scotland. The main difference has been a thawing of relations between Holyrood and Westminster, with the Coalition pushing the ‘respect agenda’.  This is not to say that there have not been disagreements and accusations of ‘disrespect’ along the way – Clegg’s AV referendum date comes to mind.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the Scottish Governments decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.  The Scottish Government is under continued pressure to release the medical evidence which ultimately led to Kenny MacAskill’s decision.  Mr MacAskill, this week also announced that he would be ‘happy’ to meet with US Senators if they travelled to Scotland to discuss the reasons behind the decision.

The Scottish Governments much criticised Curriculum for Excellence was rolled out across Scotland this week. The Curriculum aims to transform Scotland’s education system by providing a more coherent, flexible and enriched curriculum for 3 to 18 year olds.  The main difference will be that teachers will be given more freedom to teach fewer subjects in more depth, while asking pupils to actively seek answers for themselves.  In theory pupils will spend less time being assessed and more time learning. Critics claim that the proposals are being rushed through without proper assistance being given to teachers.

Following last week’s publication of the Independent Budget Review, there are growing calls, by local authorities and MSPs alike, to end the current freeze on Council tax.  With Scotland preparing to implement a series of wide ranging cuts, the policy is increasingly been seen as a luxury the country can no longer afford.  While the SNP Government have confirmed their aspiration to continue this policy for a fourth year, they have so far stopped short of guaranteeing such a move.

Alex Salmond has been in Norway this week to discuss how the countries can work together in areas of common interest.  Announcements have come on joint approaches towards renewable energy and fishing quotas.    The First Minister also used his trip to demand the establishment of a Norwegian-style oil fund, highlighting the case for devolving control of North Sea taxation and production to the Scottish Parliament, which would potentially deliver billions of pounds of benefits to Scotland.

Beveridge Report: Independent Budget Review

Last week the Scottish Government published its Independent Budget Review (IBR) Report in advance of the UK Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in October.  Created as part of a deal which secured Conservative support for the Scottish Budget, the review was given the remit of how the Scottish Government could make savings. The findings could not have been any different from its namesake of 1942 whose findings witnessed the establishment of the welfare state.  The 2010 vintage seeks ways in which this could be dismantled.

The IBR’s main recommendations include a fall in the public sector workforce – potentially by as much as 50,000 – reductions and reviews of public sector wages and pensions.  No public sector service should be ring-fenced, cross-the-board efficiency savings of at least 2%, end the council tax freeze and a bonfire of quango’s.  The headlines were reserved for the need to review universal service provision and how Scotland funds Higher Education.

The report represents an unwanted mirror image of respective Scottish Governments achievements.  Since devolution Scottish Governments have taken it upon themselves to abolish any and every service charge possible.  Graduate endowments, bridge tolls, travel concessions, prescription charges, personal care to name but a few, have all seen charges removed. The IBR recommends that most, if not all, should be reviewed or re-implemented.

John Swinney moved quickly to rule out several of the report’s recommendations, including concessionary travel, free personal care and that the NHS would be ring-fenced.  Indeed any Barnett Formula consequential will be directed towards the NHS.  Although these are noble ideas, protecting one budget comes at the expense of another. 

Alex Salmond has since watered down the Governments opposition to cuts. Options will be discussed at a cross-party meeting between Ministers and opposition parties.  Interestingly, University funding (tuition fees) has not been deemed a ‘sacred cow’ despite the Scottish Government only a few weeks ago rejecting outright there possible reintroduction.

While efficiency savings will be the desired track, it won’t be enough.  The Scottish Government has to reduce costs.  The easiest way of doing this is by cutting the workforce and scaling back capital expenditure. However, this is complicated by the £2bn already earmarked for the new Forth Road Bridge.  Important questions emerge over the continuation of loaning Scottish Water £140m annually. Could this money be put to better use?

With a UK Con-Dem Coalition at Westminster administrating cuts left, right and centre, The Beveridge Report shifts the focus to the SNP and how it, not Westminster, will wield its axe.