SNP Spending Priorities
It's a political choice - which is more important?
So John Swinney complains about cutting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. Fair enough, you may say – though he ruins it by citing it as a Scexit justification.
But why isn’t Swinney even attempting to pay it out of devolved administration resources? He could, say, scale back and pay to those aged over 70, or allocate according to council tax band.
But he is apparently happier giving up and blaming Westminster.
The reality is that the SNP administration, despite the huge benefits the Barnett Formula particularly brings to Scotland, has so badly managed Scotland’s finances (ferry procurement springs to mind) that there’s little room for manoeuvre.
The nationalists enthusiastically spend public cash on non-devolved areas, particularly foreign affairs, even though this pointlessly duplicates expenditure made by Westminster. And what about universal rather than targeted benefits that until recently have secured many middle-class votes in one election after another?
Can it really be right that the poorest taxpayers fund free prescriptions and university fees for the wealthy in Scotland, when the less well-off here can’t afford to heat their homes?
Rather than, in the usual Pavlovian manner, blaming Westminster for Scotland’s financial woes, perhaps Swinney instead should take a long, hard look at himself and his party?
Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire.
