Time for the SNP to leave cloud nine for firmer ground

erhaps it is because they are brimming over with confidence following May’s election landslide, but whatever the explanation, the SNP government is becoming increasingly prone to confusing assertion with fact, statements of intent with action, belief with reality.

Further evidence of this worrying tendency came yesterday with the publication by finance secretary John Swinney of the Government Economic Strategy, complete with the ubiquitous extraneous capital letters on most of the words – added, presumably, to give the impression that such publications are weighty with significance.

To the Strategy (sic) first produced in 2007, which focused on, among other things, Supportive Business Environment; Learning, Skills and Wellbeing; Infrastructure Development and Place; Effective Government; and Equity, was added a new Strategic Priority (yes, more irrelevant pumped-up capitals), namely Transition to a Low Carbon Economy.

The new strategy (sic) is designed to reflect Scotland’s “world-leading” work in areas such as renewable energy and the “world-leading” (again) Climate Change Act and is supposed to strengthen Scotland’s recovery, drive sustainable growth and develop a more resilient and adaptable economy.

Now, before we are accused of being overly cynical, few would quibble with these objectives. Who doesn’t need a more resilient and adaptable economy, after all? And who wouldn’t be drawn by the prospect of renewable energy and the exploitation of renewable energy technology?

The problem is that Mr Swinney, as has the First Minister, seems to have over-stated the potential benefits, claiming the transition to a low carbon economy has the potential to support 130,000 jobs by 2020. Experts, including many sympathetic to the drive to boost renewables, think his assertion wildly optimistic.

Economist and consultant Professor Tony MacKay, Peter Hughes, chairman of Scottish Engineering, and Dr Ewan Mearns, an energy expert at Aberdeen University, have all expressed doubts, not about the principle but about the scale of supposed benefits.

Such hyperbole for a government which, to take one example, could have taken a practical step to cut carbon emissions from combustion engines by embracing the Edinburgh tram scheme, is of grave concern, not just to those who believe in the cause of renewables but to voters across Scotland.

If SNP ministers make claims which are exaggerated or, in some cases, simply not true about issues such as renewable energy, what are we to make of other claims behind the policy which matters most to them and on which voters will soon have to decide in a referendum: namely independence? SNP ministers asserting something to be true does not make it true, and for their own sake they need to get their feet firmly on the ground.