SNP's Programme for Government may sound good, but here's why there's a problem – Jackie Baillie

According to John Swinney, this week marks the first 100 days of the SNP government. Notwithstanding the fact the SNP’s first 100 days in government was at some point in 2007, things have already started to fall apart in this new term.

Mere weeks after the election, the Monklands hospital was cancelled and the £10 million Islands Resilience Fund was cut to just £3m. NHS waiting lists are rising again and A&E departments are suffering through one of the most challenging summers on record.

Several flagship SNP election policies are falling apart upon impact with reality, with experts warning that GP walk-in centres could increase pressure on services and food price caps could increase the cost of food. And that’s just since May’s election – in reality, the SNP’s record of broken promises goes back decades.

READ MORE: Programme for government: Follow LIVE as John Swinney sets out his priorities for the year ahead

John Swinney has defended the SNP's introduction of walk-in GP clinics despite complaints from doctors and reports that some are hardly being used (Picture: Jane Barlow/pool) | Getty Images

U-turns, missed targets and broken promises

From the 2007 promise to scrap council tax to the 2016 pledge to close the attainment gap, the SNP’s record has long told a very different story to its manifestos. In this context, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the promises John Swinney made in his new Programme for Government.

He has been at the heart of this SNP government for nearly two decades – as Finance Secretary, Deputy First Minister, Education Secretary and Covid Recovery Secretary. He was there for every U-turn, missed target and broken promise since 2007.

I sincerely want to see this SNP Programme for Government deliver where the previous 19 have fallen short. The stakes are too high for more of the same managed decline. At a time when there are over 700,000 ongoing NHS waits for tests and treatments, I want to see our NHS modernised so more money reaches frontline services.

The NHS is our most treasured institution and inaction isn’t an option – but we cannot allow these much-needed reforms to be undermined by SNP incompetence. We’ve seen with the National Care Service debacle that good ideas often don’t survive contact with the SNP, but this is too important to get wrong.

And at a time when so many families are struggling to make ends meet, I want to see food costs come down and for working people to be better off. But we need action that improves lives right away – not a distant promise of cheaper jam tomorrow.

READ MORE: John Swinney to merge Scotland's environmental agencies

Imitating Labour

I want our public services, economy and communities to thrive. I want to see the SNP deliver in government, because it is the people of Scotland who pay the price for their failures.

Indeed there is much I would welcome in the Programme for Government. Many policies that sound fairly familiar to me – imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say.

So over the coming months and years, I will work constructively with the government to deliver for the people of Scotland – but I will not be shy about calling out its failures and its missteps. Because warm words won’t fix our NHS and grand rhetoric won’t make life more affordable.

John Swinney and his ministers must stay relentlessly focused on the priorities of the people of Scotland. The spin, the scandal and the secrecy needs to end.

Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health