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| Puts a whole new meaning on "It's a crime that he's unemployed". |
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| Good to see that we punished the people who caused the last crash, and are causing the next one. Oh wait... |
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| Aye Danny, you're important right enough. You and Gideon together. What a team! |
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| Dave, solver of problems. |
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| How does this man function in the real world? |
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| Another of Danny's right wing mates. |
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| Yeah, nice one, Anas... |
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| I see that the guy with the 8 (it was 10) YES badges was pulling Dimjim's chain! |
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| Two cheeks of the same butt. |
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| And they will support you on Trident too. You're practically the same party. |
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| See Eck got a new job? |
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| That's Britain. As it always was, and always will be.
+++++++++++++++++
It appears that the opposition don't understand finance or the various constraints put upon the Scottish government by Westminster.
It also seems that no one reminded them that the underspend had actually been reported to parliament in June of last year. Does their finance spokesman not pay attention to finance matters?
As has been demonstrated so often in the past, their researchers don't seem to be up to the mark.
Sadly, none of the other parties seem to have a grasp on finance either, otherwise they would surely have pointed out the error of the Labour attack, which Dugdale threw, yet again, at the First Minister on Thursday.
I thought it was worth putting up John Swinney's comments about the underspend in full:
The Scottish Government firmly believes Scotland will
prosper best when all revenue raised here stays here.
Meantime, there is an obligation upon us to ensure what
funds the UK Government does allocate to Edinburgh are managed responsibly.
That’s why this government ensures that we put every penny we receive towards
improving the lives of people in Scotland.
In contrast, Brian Wilson’s comments (Perspective, 10
January) betray the same problems understanding public spending that must have
bedevilled the Labour Party when they managed Scotland’s finances.
Mr Wilson’s colleagues managed to forget to spend £700
million in one year and left more than £1 billion in a Treasury bank account
which could have supported our economy and public services.
Thankfully the SNP secured the release of that money.
I can assure Brian Wilson, and your readers, that if the
£444m of underspend he refers to was all money over which I had control, then
every penny of it would be being invested properly to mitigate the impact of Westminster
cuts and welfare reforms.
The £444 million underspend against the annual
accounts-based budget, reported in the Final Outturn Report and in the media
last week, also reflects variances in Annual Managed Expenditure programmes and
other technical non-cash accounting budgets – for example depreciation and
impairments.
So such underspends therefore do not reflect a missed
opportunity to spend more on public services – much as Mr Wilson
and his Labour colleagues try to claim otherwise. The reality is that the fiscal
underspend the Scottish Government has available from 2013-14 to invest in
public services is only 0.5 per cent of our budget, or £145 million.
Far from keeping it a secret, I announced it to Parliament
in June, and confirmed that it would be carried into the next year – and that
every penny would be allocated to support people in Scotland.
On top of that, some £31 million of financial transactions
was also brought forward to support vital investment in housing and
regeneration. This is funding restricted by Treasury rules and can only be used
for the provision of loans or equity investment beyond the public sector
and has to be repaid to HM Treasury in future years.
We agree that Scotland’s schools and hospitals are worthy of
the best possible levels of investment and, until we are responsible for our
own financial affairs, they deserve better than the successive real-term cuts
to which Scotland’s budget has been subject and which the Labour Party clearly
intend to continue.
JOHN SWINNEY
Deputy First Minister
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