Spare cash

Your report (9 January), that the SNP did not spend more than £440 million of its budget last year, beggars belief.

One of the many unending refrains from the SNP and its adherents is the attack on “Westminster austerity” and the resulting cuts to the Scottish Government. And now we are told that it has enforced a self-imposed cut!

Its defence is that the sum represents only 1.3 per cent of its budget. Well, that makes it all right then.

After all, a mere £440m would not be of much use to the education service, for instance, would it?

One wonders why they didn’t manage to find the time to spend such a significant sum. Were they too busy carping about London or Westminster?

Or was there another issue on their minds during the last year – one which to them is much more deserving of their ­attention than the state of the country they are supposed to be governing?

Colin Hamilton

Braid Hills Avenue

Edinburgh