Men in Kilts

Political insults ain't what they used to be, I would say - if the trade union response to the latest Scottish Government budget is anything to go by.

Apparently, the public sector trade unions are trying to portray John Swinney - Scotland's  finance secretary - as 'George Osborne in a kilt' over his proposal that public sector pay should increase by only a modest 1% in 2013.

Presumably the trade unions believe that the Scottish Government should increase pay by much more than 1% - but if so, they remain conspicuously silent on how this should actually be achieved.

'How much more of Scotland's £28 billion budget should go towards public sector pay?' - is the obvious question - if the trade unions were in charge of the nation's biscuit tin.

And if pay were to be given a much greater priority - then who or what should lose out in order to balance the books?

It's not rocket science, you know.

Should taxes or charges rise - including the council tax - in order to generate more cash to spend on public sector pay?

Because if that's what the trade unions believe then they should say so - if they are to have any credibility with their own members - or the wider public. 

To my mind the problem with Scotland's trade unions these days is that they are not so much 'Bravehearts' as 'wee timorous beasties' - only to willing to throw childish insults at their opponents - yet too timid to call a spade a spade.