Alex Salmond unveiled his "Programme for Scotland" yesterday - a raft of 11 bills and the possibility of others to come, which he said should command consensus at Holyrood.
Alex Salmond unveiled his "Programme for Scotland" yesterday - a raft of 11 bills and the possibility of others to come, which he said should command consensus at Holyrood.
It was a cautious legislative programme dictated by the SNP government's minority status - as the First Minister put it "a programme that persuades rather than one which asserts the domination of one party or coalition or one world view".
Those expecting that a consummate showman such as Mr Salmond would produce a legislative rabbit out of the hat were disappointed.
Most of his bills were as flagged up or predictable from the party manifesto, except for a pledge to update the laws governing flood prevention, which date back almost half a century.
"It was not a day for rabbits out of a hat," said one aide afterwards. "People will expect us to come up with real change that can be delivered."
Mr Salmond told the chamber: "Politicians often like to believe that we exist to make law and that only through constantly changing the law we achieve our policy objectives. That view of political leadership is mistaken.
"It is not the purpose of government to legislate - rather it is for government and parliament to legislate with a purpose."
Apart from the statutory Budget Bill, which will have to await Westminster's autumn spending review, there were 10 subject bills. These will abolish bridge tolls, improve public health laws, toughen the law on rape, modernise judicial appointments, guarantee the right to interest on debts, make health boards elected, tackle student debt, reform Scotland's cultural bodies, support a winning bid for the Commonwealth Games, and modernise flood prevention.
Banning airguns could be added to that list, depending on agreement with Westminster, and two members bills could receive support - a Tory move to create a registry of tartans, and a Labour attempt to license tanning salons.
Two other bills will be consulted on but will not feature in this year's legislative programme - statutory guarantees for patients, and a bill to tackle climate change. The delay on the latter brought a strong onslaught from Green leader Robin Harper, in one of the few attacks yesterday to strike home on Mr Salmond.
Stand-in Labour leader Cathy Jamieson contrasted the SNP rhetoric of will, shall and can, with a document that was all ifs, buts and maybes.
But her main attack was on a non-legislative pledge to increase police strength by the equivalent of 1000 officers.
It is a term routinely used to differentiate between full-time and part-time posts, but Ms Jamieson asked: "Are we to dial 999 and ask for the equivalent of a police officer?"
Labour's leader-elect, Wendy Alexander, dubbed the programme "legislation lite" but when she questioned the lack of a commitment to freeze council tax Mr Salmond had an easy come-back by pointing out that it was on page four of the document.
Tory leader Annabel Goldie castigated the lack of a commitment to tackle crime and drugs or even any mention of the crisis in dentistry.
"This programme is not so much the sleek racehorse of Scottish Government but more a three-legged nag with a limp," she said.
Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen said: "This is the lightest legislative programme ever presented to this parliament.
"So light that it is not even called a legislative programme any more."
