SNP roll over on ConDem cuts

SNP claims that their budget “will protect jobs, frontline services and economic recovery” is rubbish

Posted by Campbell Martin on September 16, 2011. Filed under Campbell Martin,Holyrood,Public Spending Cuts,Scotland. Posted with the tags:Holyrood, Public Spending Cuts, SNP
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Scottish Government Finance Minister John Swinney

The Programme for Government, recently announced by First Minister Alex Salmond, is remarkable mainly for one thing…its lack of ambition.

The detail of what the SNP Government plans to do in the current session of parliament is proof, if any more were needed, that the ‘party of independence’ has become very comfortable managing devolution within the British Union.

To be fair, we should acknowledge that, even with a majority in parliament, the SNP Government has very little power.

For example, the devolved administration cannot introduce a progressive taxation system, under which those who earn the most would be expected to contribute their fair share. The British Government in London doesn’t allow Scotland that kind of power, and the SNP seems to have accepted that position (pending an affirmative vote in the promised Independence Referendum).

Under devolution, even with a majority SNP Government, our national parliament is also prevented from legislating on crucial areas like the economy, social security and pensions. So, against that background – and a £1.3billion funding cut from Westminster – how can Finance Secretary John Swinney claim his budget for 2011-12 “will protect jobs, frontline services and economic recovery”?

Of course, the answer to that question is simple – Swinney is talking nonsense.

He’s talking nonsense, and he knows it. As Finance Secretary in the Scottish Government, Swinney has accepted Westminster’s cuts, and he’s simply passed them on to local government. Far from the claims made in the SNP budget statement and Programme for Government, jobs continue to be lost across the country, frontline services are being savaged, and the economy remains struggling to get off the floor.

Remember when the SNP claimed to ‘Stand Up for Scotland’?

Surely a party that genuinely stood up for Scotland would have told Westminster, “We’re not accepting your cuts!”

Surely it would have been legitimate for the Scottish Government to have told the Tories and LibDems, “You have no mandate in Scotland for your cuts agenda. You were soundly rejected by the people of Scotland, so give us back our £1.3billion!”

Sadly, the SNP is not that kind of party. Today’s ‘New SNP’ is comfortably at home as part of the establishment, playing the game by Westminster’s rules, accepting savage cuts and passing them to already struggling councils. The SNP really could have protected “jobs, frontline services and economic recovery”, but it chose, instead, to be the Tory’s little helpers in Scotland.

Instead of challenging the right of Tories and Liberal Democrats to slash our nation’s finances, the SNP Scottish Government meekly accepted what Westminster offered, which means Alex Salmond is in no position to announce an ambitious Programme for Government.

Don’t get me wrong, there are proposals that will be of benefit – the Alcohol Minimum Pricing Bill and the Offensive Behaviour at Football Bill – and the SNP should be congratulated for finally addressing issues that have been allowed to fester for far too long.

However, there are also more questionable proposals, ones that reflect the SNP’s repositioning to the centre-right.

I remain to be convinced that Scotland needs or will benefit from a national police force, and I doubt very much that the general public will derive a great deal from forcing Scottish Water to ‘evolve’ into an agency that generates outside income to make it ‘financially neutral’: but, of course, we’ll all sleep better at night knowing the SNP Government has found legislative time to preserve landlords sporting rights in relation to game and fishing.

What about independence? The SNP – the ‘party of independence’ remember ­still appears to be in no hurry to get there, with no advance on a referendum before ‘the latter part’ of the current five-year parliamentary term.

All of which brings us to the conclusion that the SNP is now firmly settled on the centre-right of the political spectrum, embracing the capitalist system and advocating policies that put the interests of multi-national corporations before the needs of the people of Scotland. Even an independent Scotland under an SNP Government would look remarkably similar to the Labour and Tory UK Governments we’ve had over the past fifteen years.

That means the fight for a better, fairer Scotland remains to be won, but the case for an independent, Scottish socialist republic has never been stronger.