Budget wake-up call

Published on Wednesday 23 January 2008 21:18

THE minority SNP government has survived to fight another day. Last night its first budget squeaked through by 64 votes to 62 with the support of the Tories and Margo MacDonald, the independent MSP. The two Green MSPs abstained.

Given the mathematics of the Holyrood parliament, the First Minister, Alex Salmond, and the finance secretary, John Swinney, have won a significant political victory. The opposition parties – Labour in particular – have spent much of the time since last May behaving as if their election defeat was an accident and that the SNP government would soon disappear. If yesterday's vote cures them of this delusion, and forces them to become a more coherent and pro-active opposition, so much the better for Scottish democracy.

What are we to make of the new SNP-Tory alliance? From one perspective, it should come as no surprise. The Scottish Tories have never been particularly Thatcherite, while the SNP has always had a strong populist streak. However, it would be bad for Scotland if minority government at Holyrood degenerated into opportunism. Scotland needs stable government and that requires coherent policies.

The SNP made a number of promises to secure its budget, including one to Margo MacDonald for Edinburgh to get extra cash to defray the costs of being a capital city. It is a promise that should be kept.