Hamish Macdonell: Failure to make cuts would be the real scandal

Published on Monday 20 April 2009 22:08

THERE was definitely something reassuring about the story in one of the weekend tabloids – "vice madam" to "name and shame four high-flying Tories", it claimed. Suddenly it seemed as if everything was right with the world, political scandals were back where they were supposed to be.

We had moved on from MPs and their expenses to the more familiar territory of Tories, bondage sessions and call girls.

After all, this is what political scandals are supposed to be about, affairs which cause acute embarrassment to the guilty but nothing more than a laugh for the rest of the country.

That is why the raft of stories about MPs claiming money for second homes, barbecue sets and home furnishings caused so much trouble: it was because these reports generated real anger among the electorate.

These weren't stories to read and laugh about in the pub, these were stories to make ordinary people fume. Yet despite the acres written about the MPs and their financial excesses at the taxpayers' expense, the message does not seem to have got through to our elected representatives.

Earlier this month it emerged that some MSPs were claiming their journeys to work on expenses – even though ordinary members of the public cannot do that.

Some MSPs claimed just 49p to get them a mile from their homes to their constituency offices while quite a few more claimed their taxi fares back for the short, ten-minute walk from Waverley station to the parliament.

It is not that these MSPs were breaking the rules, they were not. What they are doing, however, was squeezing every last penny out of the taxpayer at a time when the taxpayers' patience was wearing thin.

What the electorate wants to see, at this time when many are suffering financial hardship, is restraint from its elected representatives or, if that is not possible, then at least some kind of sensitivity to the current economic situation.

It is in this context that Alistair Darling is preparing his Budget. In broad terms, he has a choice: he can keep on spending to try to stave off the worst effects of the recession but, in doing so, he will heap further IOUs on to the mountainous national debt, which is already threatening to bankrupt the country. Or he can start reining in public spending, cutting budgets and stabilising the national debt.

Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, gave a revealing insight into her thinking yesterday. She told the Scottish TUC that she agreed with the unions' submissions on the Budget, that it was not possible to "cut" your way out of a recession, you had to "grow" your way out of a recession.

Scotland's union leaders had made it clear they wanted more spending on public services combined with pay rises for public sector staff. They definitely believe in spend, spend, spend.

Either Ms Harman was just speaking for herself and she has no idea what is in Mr Darling's budget – which is possible – or she was just telling the unions what they wanted to hear, regardless of what is in the Budget, which is more likely. However, she could actually be privy to the Chancellor's plans and knows he is about to embark on another big spending spree. That would be the most frightening option of all.

A "spend, spend, spend" Budget may be good for the public sector and the unions which represent the workers there but if it cripples the economy, we will all suffer.

As Mr Darling tries to block out all the voices crowding in on him with advice in the lead-up to tomorrow's Budget, one of those which might get through – if only because of its sheer persistence – is the First Minister's.

Alex Salmond has complained, loudly, that Scotland's budget cannot cope with the planned 500 million of annual efficiency savings he believes is coming his way.

But what he does not seem to want to acknowledge – nor Ms Harman for that matter – is that the country is massively in debt and we need to start paying it back, all of us. There cannot be special cases made for the public sector, or for Scotland, or for any part of the country.

Mr Darling has to announce spending cuts tomorrow (and he can't just put them off until after the next election because that would be cheap and partisan) and Mr Salmond should not only applaud them but say he will do everything in his power to go further and make the public sector even more efficient than it is now.

Every single project which is paid for by the taxpayer should be looked at and assessed. The only criteria should be: is it vital? If it is not – like, for instance, the 70,000 being spent over the next few years to make the Scottish Parliament more accessible to Gaelic speakers – then it should be axed.

The Scottish block grant has almost doubled since devolution to 34 billion. Can it bear to be trimmed? Of course it can.

UK public borrowing could hit 175 billion this year, almost entirely because of the "spend, spend, spend" approach already adopted by the government. If we have more spending in the Budget, this debt will climb even higher and the potential implications for the future of the country are immense.

It is time that both Mr Salmond and Ms Harman stopped playing to their respective claques and realised that the only way back is to have a "save, save, save" Budget. That means pain for all of us, in private sector and public, in unions and corporations, in England and, yes, in Scotland too.

Our elected representatives have shown themselves to be far too keen to spend our money without a thought as to where it has come from, on themselves and on the country.

If old-fashioned Tory sex scandals are making a comeback, maybe it is time Mr Darling, Mr Salmond and Ms Harman embraced old-fashioned Tory thriftiness too.