A LEADING economist has accused the SNP government of undermining public trust by disguising its own inaction and exaggerating its spending with a “duplicitous” Budget.
John McLaren said that, despite ministers complaining about Westminster austerity, they had done next to nothing to boost the Budget for 2017-18 by using their new tax powers.
He said next year's £800m cash increase resulted almost entirely from decisions made by the UK government.
Read more: Alex Salmond - Yes will win next referendum if Westminster rejects Scottish Brexit deal
Just over £650m came from ‘Barnett consequentials’, the knock-on effects of spending decisions south of the border, raising the block grant to Scotland, while £135m was an increase in capital borrowing.
He said the new tax-raising powers, including those over income tax, had “turned out to be something of a damp squib, making little, if any, difference to the Budget as a whole”.
Even the SNP manifesto pledge to invest £500m above inflation in the NHS over the parliament was built on the back of a five-year spending plan for the English NHS, he said.
In a new paper for the Scottish Trends website, he said: “It seems likely that all the funds to meet this pledge will arise from NHS England-related Barnett consequentials, with no additional money from Scottish budgets or from increased taxes.”
Alex Bell, a former special adviser to First Minister Alex Salmond, said the SNP were “cowards” for failing to take bold measures on tax and we was in "despair" about the party's timidity in office.
Predicting the Budget would “slash spending”, he wrote in a newspaper column: “The poor will suffer, services will be cut, jobs will be lost all because the Nats actively chose not to build a new land, but to make do and mend. If that is the best they can offer, why bother giving them more powers?”
Mr McLaren, honorary Professor of Economics at Glasgow University’s Adam Smith Business School, also said it was “impossible” to justify Finance Secretary Derek Mackay’s claim last week that councils would get an extra £240m, based on the official Budget documents.
Scottish Parliament analysts this weekend said council funding would fall by £327m, backing up a complaint from the council umbrella group Cosla.
Mr McLaren said new capital borrowing powers were also not being used as intended, but to prop up the SNP replacement for PPP/PFI, known as NPD, which has fallen foul of EU rules.
Read more: Alex Salmond - Yes will win next referendum if Westminster rejects Scottish Brexit deal
Overall, presentational tricks were making the Budget “increasing difficult” to follow.
He said: “Such behaviour is duplicitous and undermines trust. Just because UK Budgets are often presented in a way that contains sleight of hand and manipulation doesn't mean that the Scottish Government should borrow from such ‘worst practice’.
"As the UK Government has often found out, short term tricks are usually found out and simply lead to an erosion of confidence in the Budget process. It would be far better to make clear your position and to argue the case for that position, rather than to present a false one.
“While it is understandable that politicians will want to put forward their own best interpretation with respect to difficult budget choices, we now appear to have reached a point where too often what is presented cannot be taken at face value.
"This encourages political cynicism and disengagement, the reverse of what is needed.”
Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: “After complaining for years about the United Kingdom, this analysis blows a hole in the SNP's grievance agenda.
“None of this extra cash is due to the SNP's own decisions, it is all due to the Union dividend.”
Labour’s Jackie Baillie said: “Nicola Sturgeon has campaigned her entire adult life to have the powers to do things differently to the Tories, yet now she has the powers she refuses to use them. Labour will not vote for a budget that cuts public services even further.”
It also emerged yesterday that public support to nationalised Prestwick Airport will hit £40m next year, despite ministers predicting a £25m limit when they bought it for £1 in 2013.
Read more: Alex Salmond - Yes will win next referendum if Westminster rejects Scottish Brexit deal
A government spokeswoman said the Budget would deliver increased investment in education and the NHS, and provide support for the economy, jobs and household incomes through a "fair and balanced set of tax and spending proposals".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel