SNP Ministers and Power Grabs
Everything’s a power grab to Scottish Ministers who bypass and ignore the Scottish Parliament on a regular basis, eg on public sector pay
— Mark Irvine (@Mark1957) March 25, 2021
The strange thing about SNP Ministers and 'power grabs' is that they only seem to work in one direction - the Scottish Government is never concerned about by-passing MSPs and the Scottish Parliament.
Nor do they seem too worried about reducing still further the powers of Scottish local government and Scotland's 32 local councils.
Scotland's 'Sideshow' Parliament (26/03/21)
The SNP are always banging on about the importance and sovereignty of the Scottish Parliament, but yet again Ministers have reduced Holyrood to a mere sideshow when it comes to the public finances.
In November 2020 Nicola Sturgeon announced a new Covid bonus scheme to an online conference of SNP delegates which denied the Scottish Parliament and MSPs any say in how £200 million of public money was to be spent.
Just yesterday, after Holyrood finished its final session ahead of the parliamentary elections in May, Ministers announced a 4% pay rise for NHS staff, again without any questions, clarification or debate.
Now I'm all in favour of better pay for NHS workers although this latest move smacks of an SNP election stunt rather than a serious attempt to tackle low pay or fairly reward those who have played a key role during the Covid epidemic.
Yet again other key groups who have been keeping essential services going during lockdown are excluded, even though their role has been just as crucial as the NHS - care workers, refuse workers, police, food supply/distribution and the army all spring to mind.
To add insult to injury, these issues played no part in the Scottish Parliament debates which only recently agreed the Scottish Government's budget for 2021-2022.
So it really does look like just a cynical, if cunning, stunt aimed at boosting the SNP's chances in the Holyrood elections.
The costs of the package has not yet been made clear, but because they are not accounted for in the 2021-2022 Scottish Government budget, they must be coming from the additional billions in Covid support funds provided by the UK Treasury.
Again the allocation and broad use of public money ought to be debated collectively by MSPs in Holyrood - otherwise SNP ministers are making a mockery of democracy and treating the Scottish Parliament with ill-disguised contempt.
