The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
After 17 years, the SNP still can’t govern
One of the interesting things about the general election was that for the first time, the national media was able to investigate and expose the Scottish Government’s failings.
It seems despite 17 years in power the Scottish Nationalists have not learned much about governance.
It’s been: “We don’t have enough money!” followed by “It’s all Westminster’s fault!”
The only difference is, when in power the Tories got the blame, now it’s all the six-week-old Labour government’s fault.
The mistakes have been the Nationalists’ own failures, leaving them scrambling in the darkness of desperation.
The council workers’ pay increase was the start.
Normally this is decided by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla). But three first ministers ago, when they couldn’t agree, Nicola Sturgeon intervened and new money was found to support an increase.
So naturally, when the council workers couldn’t get a decent raise for the low-paid workers this year, a dispute was registered and the first minister had to once again “find” the additional money.
The second blow was when the UK government decided the winter fuel payments would be means-tested this year. Something most people would agree with.
It’s not fair that everyone, including those who don’t need it and ex-pats living abroad, gets a £300 bonus in winter.
This idea of universal handouts was good during the post-war years when the NHS was formed and welfare benefits were brought in to tide families over.
At that time, most people felt they were all in the same position. But today that’s far from the case.
Scotland’s government has no pay policy. They were keen to give out pay raises to avert strikes, which is reasonable, but without a pay policy and no contingency plans for emergencies, the whole situation is a bit haphazard.
If you are going to use people’s taxes to hand out giveaways you need back-up plans to prevent wholesale cuts in the services those same people require.
Our NHS is screaming out for cash, and our councils are facing possible bankruptcy and will have to severely reduce services.
Free universal bus fares have meant that as passengers up to the age of 22 and after age 60 don’t pay anything, there is no incentive or money to bring in new routes.
In the north-east, Stagecoach is already 40 drivers short.
The free gift of baby boxes for newborns is a great idea. But not everybody needs it and they are often simply not used. Social care workers and health visitors will be aware of the families who desperately need them and they could pass them on.
Free prescriptions have always been available to anyone with a long-term or terminal illness. But in Scotland everybody gets free prescriptions. We could pay a token sum like £5 towards the medicines.
I recall a woman arguing with her pharmacy because her doctor hadn’t sent through a prescription for her paracetamol tablets. She was concerned that she wouldn’t have any over the Christmas period. The pharmacist tried to reassure saying she could still buy a box over the counter for less than a pound. But she demanded she get it free from the NHS.
When it was pointed out it cost nearly £20 to produce a prescription, she stated it wasn’t her problem!
The Scottish Government has known there was a hole in their budget when they set it in December 2023 and tried to push difficult spending decisions into future years.
Despite this, every health board in Scotland has missed its cancer treatment targets in the first three months of this year and cancer research money has been reduced by £850,000.
The arts funding of £6 million has again been withdrawn, creating budgetary problems for them.
The whole premise of annual budgeting for Scotland is daft. It should be done on a rolling three-year cycle.
It was John Swinney himself who changed that. Regrettably, it makes budgetary decisions much less transparent and more difficult to forecast accurately.
Recently this paper reported on £42 billion uncollected council tax. Much of it dating back to the SNP’s own “can’t pay won’t pay” campaign.
It should be remembered that the Scottish Government was set up to deal with issues specific to Scotland which did not impact on the rest of the UK.
But the SNP altered this and used it as an alternative to Westminster, creating all the issues we have today.
We could pay a token £5 for our prescriptions