There are things in this budget with which we agree:
The pay freeze on salaries over £21,000, to protect jobs
The protection of the NHS budget
The funding for the additional Police
The maintenance of the cuts in business rates for small and medium sized businesses
And the Council Tax Freeze
All Conservative policies. But there is always room for more.
In common with other parties, we have been in dialogue for some weeks with the Scottish Government over the Budget.
We have outlined our main concerns on where the Government needs to act to improve the budget – a greater focus on job creation in the private sector to support and rebalance the Scottish economy, and reform of public services to enable them to be protected as budgets fall.
Although this budget is for one year, it cannot be viewed in isolation.
On Monday, the Scottish Government published longer term spending figures, as required by Parliament.
However, although the First Minister was keen to boast about how the NHS budget would be protected – I wonder where he got that idea – Mr Swinney makes clear that “actual budgets will vary from the illustrations”.
If the SNP's answer is to increase public funding, then from which other areas where the Government is currently projecting a cash freeze will we see the substantial reductions made?
Will it be the NHS?
Or schools?
Affordable housing?
Aren't we entitled to know?
The First Minister used to get terribly excited about cuts of £500m; just not when they are his own doing.
The Budget is not perfect, but nor is it beyond redemption. To borrow a phrase from the First Minister, it remains in purgatory. In order to allow cross party dialogue on the budget to continue, we will support the Budget Bill today.
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