Summary
Shona Robison, Scotland's finance minister, addressed fundamental budget changes due to Tory failure and Labour's arrival in government yesterday. Forced to cut the winter fuel payment and reduce spending because of necessary increases in public sector pay, Robison faced criticism from unionist parties in the Scottish Parliament, all of whom denied responsibility for Scotland's financial issues that stems from an inadequate devolution settlement and neoliberal policies. The debate underscored a broader denial of accountability in British politics that aggravates Scotland's austerity challenges.
I watched Shona Robison, the Scottish minister of finance, deliver a statement in the Holyrood parliament yesterday. The statement was necessitated by budget changes that are being forced on the Scottish government this year as a result of significant changes to patterns of expenditure that have been forced upon it since the budget for the current year was set, and since Labour came into office.
I did not especially envy Shona Robison her task. What was apparent was that whatever she said, the combined unionist forces within the Scottish parliament and the Scottish media would criticise whatever she decided to do.
In practice, as she made clear, she had to cut the Scottish equivalent of the winter fuel payment paid by the Westminster government in England because Labour would no longer provide the money to pay for it.
She also had no choice but to find budget savings to pay for the necessary increases in public sector pay in Scotland to ensure that workers, from those in the NHS to teaching and elsewhere, have sufficient rewards to ensure that some people at least still want to undertake these enormously onerous tasks which impose burdens on those undertaking them that most people in the private sector would refuse to endure during the course of their working day.
And, what Shona Robison also had to anticipate was the fact that whatever she said now, things are likely to get very much worse. Rachel Reeves delivers her budget in October because she and Keir Starmer have, with a total absence of political flair, promised more pain thereafter.
I admit that Shona Robison‘s presentation showed little more flare. It is a sad fact that very few politicians are able to display much of that characteristic in Scotland or anywhere else. But that said, she was competent.
She made it clear that Labour is now her problem because that is now true as far as the people of Scotland are concerned.
She also made clear that despite fourteen years of Tory rule, growth and increases in productivity in Scotland have been bigger than they were in England.
And, as she also made very clear, everything that she had to do was the fault of Westminster because it has persistently refused, as a consequence of the tacit agreement between the unionist parties located there, to improve the devolution settlement for Scotland so that it has effective tax powers, or to agree to independence. The result was Robison was able to declare that Scotland is moving into austerity, and it was not her fault.
You would never have believed that this was a truthful statement given the reaction of the unionist politicians in the Holyrood chamber.
The Tories denied that they had any responsibility for the dire state of the economy.
Labour claimed that all the problems the Scottish government faced were entirely of its creation and nothing had anything to do with announcements that Labour had already made when that is very obviously completely untrue.
The Liberal Democrats floundered because that is all the Liberal Democrats ever do in Scotland.
There was, perhaps, a hint of conciliation from the Greens, which limited its criticism to cuts that are going to be imposed on capital expenditure, which is bound to impact necessary climate transition spending that must take place in Scotland, as elsewhere.
What, however, was most surprising was the total absence of any acceptance of responsibility for anything that might be happening in Scotland on the part of the unionist parties who have created the current almost unmanageable devolved financial settlement for that country.
If they are honest (and they are not), they would have to admit that the current devolution settlement is rotten to its core.
They would also have to accept that it is their neoliberal policies that make it almost impossible for the Scottish government to meet the needs of the people of that country.
And they, too, would have to admit that if they provide the Scottish government with no borrowing powers of any consequence, it is inevitable that it will not be able to fund the required levels of infrastructure investment that Scotland is desperately in need of.
They would also have to admit that it is their policies now putting pressure on public services in Scotland, not least by imposing recruitment freezes right across the public sector which are bound to prejudice the quality of services that can be supplied.
They will also have to admit, in the case of Labour, that the punishment being handed out to pensioners is entirely their responsibility.
But that would be all too much for these neoliberal, anti-Scottish parties who want to play politics at Holyrood but who have between them not a single person actually capable of making the decisions that any Scottish government might need to take, most especially if the current settlement continues.
So, what we saw was a total denial of the reality of the British economic malaise by those parties that created it in 2009. In microcosm, we did, as a result, see the whole problem of British politics laid out. There was total denial of responsibility on the part of all those who have created the austerity that Scotland will face; however overwhelming is the evidence of their guilt.
No wonder we're in a mess. Neoliberalism has reduced politics to the level of farce. No wonder people have had enough of it.
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The SNP will not win the argument for Independence, the Unionists will allow the arguments for the Union to be lost, indeed will choose to lose it.
I wonder what effect an Independent Scotland, if it is brave enough to drop neo liberalism, might have on UK politics
The Guardian makes it very clear that as far as fiscal policy is concerned there wasn’t a change of government in July and we live in farcical times! A very dumb country heading downwards!
“The government borrowed £51.4bn in the financial year to July 2024. This was £500m less than during the same four months of the previous financial year, but £4.7bn more than forecast in March 2024 by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury’s independent forecaster.
While this overshoot is expected to force the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to increase taxes or cut spending in her first budget next month to meet fiscal rules that she has adopted from the previous Tory government, to have debt falling as a share of GDP in five years, it is considered a relatively small deficit by investors.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/03/demand-for-government-debt-shows-uk-still-a-haven-for-investors
I think the word “forced” is an exaggeration it is simply a choice based on the neo liberal belief that ‘public bad private good!’ so taxing the rich is evil.
On the day of the final report of the Grenfell inquiry is published when we saw that the private pursuit of profit, the neo liberal ideal directly killed 72 people. And 7 years on not one of those responsible has been charged or even arrested.
Well said Richard.
The Scottish Government is, in essence, a budget-holder largely funded from Westminster. The limited flexibility with regard to personal income tax is designed to provide the illusion of fiscal independence, but it is just that – an illusion. Scottish Labour is completely in thrall to Keir Starmer’s government, and as I think I have said here before, there is enormous antipathy between Labour and the SNP in Scotland, which has existed for decades. In Holyrood, Labour’s criticisms of the SNP government are little more than echoes of what the tories have just said to criticise it (as the official opposition, they get first dibs to respond).
Whilst it is possible to criticise the SNP government for the way it has spent funds in the past (and to some extent I would do that, especially when it comes to transport), its policies have generally been people-focused and well meaning. The unionist parties would be the first to criticise any government in Holyrood for not spending its budget, but the essence of their current criticisms is precisely that – the Scottish Government has to cut expenditure because it has spent all its budget. The reality is indeed as Shona Robison (who is my MSP) has said – Labour austerity is being heaped upon tory austerity. The Labour and Conservative parties in Scotland are truly in an unholy alliance. And the largely unionist Scottish press of course gleefully reports all the unionist lies as the unalloyed truth.
In reality, it’s us, the Scottish people who are to blame for the situation we now face. If we had had the guts for the majority of us to vote Yes, on the 18th, September, 2014, this is a position we would never had to face. And in the recent General Election we have compounded our problem, by voting in large numbers for a Labour Party who are going to impose even more austerity, on not only the Scots, but vast numbers of the elderly, and the most vulnerable in our society.
Good post……..
The trouble is that Labour have already used the blame game and that has not gone down well with many here and may not carry much weight with the Scots.
How many blame games can you have in play at any one time?
All I could sense watching Robison walking to make her announcement was a dead woman walking and the sulphur of defeat all around her.
Talk about the killing of hope.
I actually felt sorry for her and ashamed to be honest to be part of the tribe that is addling her country.
Evil.
When you have 99% of print and news channels against any Government what chance do they have.
I do wonder what the Unionist would say if to keep the Union together Scotland was to have control of ALL revenue like any other country and they were to give England & co a block grant as a share of defence to keep their precious Union just a thought.
I watched a bit of the interview Colin McKay did with Shona Robison last night and what struck me was the aggressive and bullying attitude of McKay.
No explanation was accepted of outside influence and budget constraints. In fact he was practically in Robison’s face nearly shouting her down and refusing to let her finish a sentence.
This is unionist media writ large who understand the constraints of devolution but blame the person who have to make the tough decisions.
I’m no SNP fan but was looking for Robison to get a bit more aggressive and put him in his place.
A shameful interview by a bullying McKay
Thanks
I am increasingly of the view that responsibility in politics died with the generation that experienced WW2; as the post-war consensus collapsed in the late 70s, so followed the ‘culture war’ politics from the USA in the late 80s. Competence and responsibility were no longer vote winners, and parties hopped from one pivot issue to another, using single issues to blind the populace and gain/retain power.
I can’t remember what news website I read it on, but mention was made of a report documenting Scottish Government decisions in increasing the deficit.
If I can find it, I will reply with the link, unless someone beats me to it.
Found it:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/27/scottish-ministers-largely-to-blame-for-spending-crisis-says-watchdog
But all that says is that the Scottish government was unwise to pay above inflation pay rises when it was glaringly obvious it had no choice but do so, in which case the only fools in the room are the Scottish Fiscal Commission, I do not think it says anything about the SNP government – except that the funding it gets does not allow for necessary service delivery.
No surprise that there was no mention of a deficit, in your linked article. Scotland can’t have one, at all; never mind increase it.
made clear that despite fourteen years of Tory rule, growth and increases in productivity in Scotland have been bigger than they were in England. I wonder where such a statistic could have come from. Interesting if true
It is SNP data
Then I wonder where the SNP got that data from. You said it was made clear.
It was: it was said by the minister of finance in the Scottish parliament
@:Oliver Jack,
There are 5,120 UK civil servants assigned to the Scottish Government and agencies; they’re the source of official figures. Fewer than are assigned to Wales, which surprises me.
Some of the sources of growth are fairly obvious. Increasing public sector pay, avoiding disruptive strikes and, thus, tackling the post covid backlog of operations more effectively as a result, has led to fewer people being off work and on benefits, is one example.
Dogma costs money; the Tories caused NHS England to squander north of a £billion, on agency staff, to cover the junior doctors’ strikes. It didn’t have a positive impact on waiting lists. Penny wise, pound foolish springs to mind.