His over-riding priority remains driving economic recovery and promoting sustainable economic growth. Further, Mr Swinney brags about his own record of "effectively managing the public finances".

How realistic are these claims? On reading the document, which is delivering more cuts in block grant, one would think this is a growth Budget. Mr Swinney manages this by combining past decisions and actions with the marginal changes in the Budget to give a false impression of government activity. A major focus is on capital investment, in which he properly attacks the reductions, then asks for additional funding, ignoring the fact that his own private finance model – the NPD pipeline – could have been accelerated without Treasury approval last year when capital cuts were already severe.