Letter: Budget balancing

Finance secretary John Swinney (Letters, 15 June) states that his SNP administration has "run a balanced budget every single year". But the Scottish Government can't borrow money and thus has to balance the budget, so would it have mattered which party or coalition formed the administration?

And Mr Swinney wants his government to have borrowing powers, thus he's making a virtue of balanced budget necessity when he actually wants to put Scotland into debt.

Indeed, Mr Swinney was more than happy to indulge in the spending spree that contributed to what he calls "Westminster's economic incompetence in racking up record debt", and of course he'd have spent even more given the chance.

I can't really recall the SNP complaining about Westminster's ballooning debt when Holyrood was spending the money.

Stuart Winton

Hilltown

Dundee