Scottish Government offering a Budget of broken promises

22/1/08

Margaret Smith MSP has criticised the Scottish Government for failing to provide funds in their budget to keep their manifesto promises and for putting short term populist policies before the long term future of Scotland. Speaking in the first debate on the Scottish Government’s budget in Parliament today, the Edinburgh West MSP also criticised the lack of transparency in the budget which has prevented proper scrutiny of their spending plans.

Commenting, Mrs Smith said:

“The Scottish Government’s budget is disappointing on so many levels – not only have they broken their promises to the people of Scotland, by failing to provide funds for key manifesto policies, but they have also broken their pledge of consensus Government by failing to provide a transparent budget which can be properly scrutinised by opposition parties.

“The list of let downs is endless – no money for dropping student debt, no extra money for reducing class sizes, no proper investment in higher education and insufficient funding for 1000 more Police officers on our streets. There is also a wider concern that the budget choices made by the SNP Government will lead to cuts in vital public services across Scotland and will damage our country’s future. 

“It is no wonder then that the Scottish Government have tried to conceal their budget from us by providing insufficient information for effective scrutiny and I am calling for much more detailed budget information in future and an urgent rethink of elements of the budget itself. I did not vote for the budget today as a result of my concerns, but I hope that progress can be made towards a budget which all parties can support.”