John Swinney's 'flimsy' Programme for Government is more about next year's election than anything else

The SNP’s new Programme for Government has the feel of an election manifesto

“Is that it?” Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s response to John Swinney’s Programme for Government pithily summed up the dearth of ambition and the lack of new policies that will truly get to grips with the multiple crises facing Scotland. Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay was equally unimpressed, calling the announcements “flimsy”.

The First Minister had promised his government would be “laser-focused on delivery”, responding to criticisms that the SNP has tended to over-promise and under-deliver in the past. And he appears to be so determined on this that there will be relatively little for ministers to do in the 12 months between now and the next Scottish Parliament election.

That said, there were some welcome measures, such as the decision to scrap peak-time rail fares “for good” from September, a move that will hopefully encourage more rail travel and help persuade people to travel less by car.

John Swinney delivers a statement on his Programme for Government at the Scottish Parliament (Picture: Jane Barlow) | PA

A&E in need of resuscitation

Swinney also promised there would be “an extra 100,000 appointments in GP surgeries”, focussed on “key risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking", and more than 150,000 extra appointments for surgery, diagnostic tests and other procedures.

It did not take long for people to start expressing their disappointment. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said the Programme for Government had been a chance to “resuscitate emergency care but, instead, we have been left without a tangible plan... when will emergency care become a political priority?”

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And while Swinney has made tackling child poverty his defining mission, John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said the plans lacked “the scale and urgency needed to meet statutory targets, never mind achieve the FM’s ambition to eradicate child poverty altogether”.

Much of the document laying out the details of the Programme for Government was actually a list of the SNP’s claimed achievements, a defence of their record, rather than an explanation of future policies.

This gave it the feel of an election manifesto, which it might as well have been. They say a week is a long time in politics. With the campaigning already underway, the next year may seem like a lifetime.