Allan Smith completed his Law Degree in 1998. He then qualified as an Independent Financial Adviser and set up his own Life Insurance Brokerage in 2008 which is based in Fife. Allan stood as the Scottish Conservative candidate in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election in his home constituency of Mid Fife & Glenrothes and finished third behind the now Presiding Officer Patricia Marwick, the first occasion a Scottish Conservative has done so since the Holyrood Parliament’s inception.
I did wonder whether Mr Swinney’s first budget with and SNP majority would turn out to be a watered down damp squib.
The same tired old nationalist rhetoric of Westminster bad, Holyrood good (so long as the SNP are in power) was prevalent throughout Swinney’s statement this afternoon though. (No surprises there!)
I have to admit that I expected many of the controversial promises made during the SNP’s minority government to have disappeared now that they knew they couldn’t rely on the opposition parties preventing the more attention grabbing, unworkable policies from making it through.
It would appear that to a degree I was wrong. Many of the more far reaching and indeed largely discredited ideas from the last budget are again there; in bold print this time round.
The most controversial of the proposals announced to in my opinion seems to be the levy on alcohol and tobacco retailers announced this afternoon.
As far as I can determine this is simply a watered down version of the previous minority administration’s discredited “Tesco tax.” Quite what the reasoning is behind this move, given the extremely difficult climate our retailer’s in Scotland are operating in remains a mystery.
Unsurprisingly, many of those representing the business community have been quick to criticise. The Scottish Retail Consortium has described the move as “illogical and discriminatory”
If the SNP see this move as a stepping stone towards the “Tesco Tax” in future budgets then they really do need to come clean. It ultimately amounted to a tax on jobs in the retail sector and its introduction would have a devastating effect on several town centre regeneration projects largely financed by the retail giants.
One of the key SNP manifesto pledges this year was a significant investment in affordable housing. Why then, in this budget, a mere 4 months since the SNP won an unprecedented majority in Holyrood has Swinney announced a 50% reduction in affordable housing investment?
The SNP have questions to answer here. Their manifesto clearly stated that there was a commitment to build 30,000 new socially-rented homes. What has happened during these 4 months?
Shelter Scotland this evening claimed this manifesto pledge was “doomed to failure” With a 50% cut in funding I tend to agree with them. It’s just a pity that the SNP were not honest with the Scottish electorate when making this “Flagship manifesto commitment”
Other commitments made by the Finance Minister include a five-year council tax freeze, no tuition fees and minimum income guarantees for Scottish students, free medical prescriptions, a social wage for low-paid workers in public services, maintenance of health board budgets in real terms, and increased numbers of frontline police and modern apprenticeships.
How these commitments are going to be paid for however is another question altogether.
The blanket free prescriptions policy was cynically designed to coincide with the last Holyrood elections. Is it affordable? Perhaps; for now.
Is it a good use of public money?
Absolutely not.
It’s long been the view of the Scottish Conservatives that free prescriptions should be available to the most vulnerable.
Handing out free prescriptions to millionaires in times of economic crisis though, simply does not make sense. I’d go so far as to say it’s immoral.
The tuition fees debate will rumble on but I’ve yet to hear anyone from within the SNP explain with any clarity how this is going to be funded.
Their policy of charging English, Welsh and Northern Irish students who choose to study in Scotland fees, yet charging Scottish students nothing seems utterly bizarre and wrong.
Can you imagine what those within the SNP would say if it was announced in Westminster that university education in England would remain free for English students but Scottish students would pay course fees?
I dread to think what the reaction would be!
Swinney also confirmed that the Scottish Government was likely to impose increased pension contributions on local authority employees in line with those for civil servants.
Reactions to the Finance Minister’s budget have so far focused on how he is going to afford his spending promises, with many opponents both sceptical over the scale of efficiency savings he envisages and about his expectation that local authorities can be persuaded to use their borrowing powers to bring forward the capital projects and thereby boost economic growth.
I fear there is more to come from this SNP government in the shape of the un-tried, untested and unworkable alcohol minimum pricing legislation and other more controversial SNP policies rejected by the opposition parties in the last parliament.
It’s really about time that the SNP stopped playing the blame game here though and appreciate that they and they alone will be held to account for the decisions they make in the Scottish parliament.
As Scotland Office Minister David Mundell said this afternoon.
“Scottish ministers have known for a year exactly how much money they have to spend. Being in government means you need to get on with making the tough decisions and it gets pretty boring if you just keep trying to blame everyone else.”
My point exactly.