Million Dollar Katie
Kate Forbes finds £120m for councils, with a little help from the Chancellor.
It’s always nice to report good news from Holyrood, so you’ll be delighted to learn the Finance Secretary’s had something of a windfall.
Kate Forbes prefaced her budget statement with a report on her suddenly improved fortunes. Where had the money come from? Back of the sofa? Swiss bank account? The St Andrew’s House lottery syndicate?
Well, no. You see, it was from the Treasury. The UK one. In Westminster.
She told MSPs: ‘The UK Government has advised... that we should anticipate further funding for this year.’
What luck! How much were we talking?
She continued: ‘In light of new information from the UK Government, I now have some new and additional flexibility on this year’s funding. So I am pleased to confirm my intention to utilise the Scotland reserve to carry forward sufficient funding from this year to next year to allocate a further £120m of resource to local government.’
An extra £120m? Over and above the block grant and Barnett and additional Covid cash? When oh when will Westminster’s cruel oppression end?
Forbes’ budget had been slated for cutting funding to local government while granting town halls unlimited powers to raise council tax. With local elections in May, a rabbit would inevitably have to be pulled out of a hat at some point. This one came sporting a jaunty Union Jack waistcoat.
Rishi Sunak had come once again to the Scottish Government’s financial rescue and, rather unhelpfully for them, demonstrated the benefits of the Union in the process. Making your opponents miserable by giving them hundreds of millions of pounds is a talent the Chancellor doesn’t get nearly enough credit for.
Forbes portrayed it as a sage move by the Scottish Government that would take the edge off the worst of predicted cuts and tax rises. ‘Councils asked for an additional £100m to deal with additional pressures and we have heard them and listened and are going to go further,' she essayed.
As Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton reminded everyone, the Nationalists pull the same stunt every year: introduce a draft budget chock-full of pain, await the howls from councils and taxpayers, then rush in with great big piles of suddenly-discovered dosh. There's still pain, but less of it, and the Nationalists look like they've done local government and the public a solid. It's all misdirection but it works.
Forbes has grown into something of a nightmare for opposition parties: a plausible-sounding Nationalist. She believes in all the same mad stuff but makes it appear almost coherent. The only way to respond to such cleverness is with an arched eyebrow and a sceptical tone, both of which come naturally to the Tories' Liz Smith.
‘Can I warmly welcome the actions taken by the UK Government to assist with this budget?’ she began, cheekily, before reminding her opposite number that she was still imposing cuts on councils, just smaller ones than first threatened.
On a note of consensus, Smith acknowledged that ‘the political dangers of Russian aggression against Ukraine are creating serious inflationary pressures’. ‘We don’t believe any of these are within the cabinet secretary’s control,' she allowed.
The Tory finance team has gone soft since the days of Murdo Fraser. He'd have found a way to blame Nicola Sturgeon personally for the annexation of Crimea.
Happy warriors are one of the joys of parliamentary sketch-writing because they take up their party's cause with great gusto and give not one fig what opponents or hacks think about it. Few warriors are as happy as the SNP's Michelle Thomson. She gave a rare turn extolling Scotland's many riches and lamented how much it wasted propping up Westminster. No, really.
To hear her tell it, Scotland is like Scrooge McDuck, its money bins bulging with oceans of bullion just waiting to be dived into the minute we can get shot of the Treasury. The Treasury that had just forked over another nine-figure sum. Sometimes Holyrood is such a rollicking great show the only thing missing is a pier.
Originally published in the Scottish Daily Mail on January 28, 2022.
Steven, this is what you do best, subtilty ripping the sheer afrontery of the nationalists to shreds.
Stephen, I know it is OT here, but can you (or anyone) have a look at the new ID card system known as the "free bus pass for under 22"? It is more difficult to get one than it is to get a passport and I have no idea what is going on with the implementation as, having applied on my kid's behalf on the 14th, I have not received it, nor do I know if my application has been successful. Messages to "tech support" remain unanswered.
Great to finally be able to comment!