THE Scottish Government is grappling with urgent and increasingly severe financial challenges, primarily due to a failing fiscal framework.
The apparent strategy of the new Labour UK Government, which is using its majority to restrict the spending options of its devolved partners, is a cause for concern.
This situation could significantly impact the 2026 election cycle, underscoring the need for immediate and bold action.
The Labour administration in Wales has struggled, challenging the SNP for the number of leaders it can have in 18 months, yet here in Scotland, Anas Sarwar is swaggering through Holyrood like a first minister-in-waiting.
Is this wise, given that “a week is a long time in politics”, and that there are 86 weeks until the people of Scotland determine our next Government?
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The people of Scotland are not daft – they understand when the Scottish Government makes deliberate spending choices and when their options are compromised by decisions made in Westminster.
This winter, the Labour government’s spending decisions are set to exacerbate the situation for Scottish pensioners, creating a triple whammy of challenges - underscoring the real-life impact of political decisions on vulnerable members of our society.
Gas and electricity prices are set to rise by 10% on October 1, with the energy price cap predicted to increase again on January 1, 2025. Scottish Social Security’s new Pension Age Winter Heating Payment is delayed to 2025-26 following the UK Government’s decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment this winter.
Lower temperatures and extreme weather, which are becoming more frequent, significantly affect health conditions and the ability to recover from flooding and storm damage for those on lower incomes with restricted options in winter months.
A Labour Party with its sights on Holyrood in 2026 should consider that Scottish pensioners, families, and communities will not look kindly on their lack of care for the devastating outcomes of Rachel Reeves’ decisions as winter unfolds and Scotland’s temperatures plummet.
If only their party had mapped a less brutal path than punishment by stealth, instead focusing on managing wealth to ensure all of Scotland benefited from warm homes in our energy-abundant country to navigate households through increasingly extreme winters.
My sympathy for the Scottish Government diminishes when its 10 years in power since 2014 have seen it squander opportunities to put Scotland on a stable footing. Without building up Scotland as a resource-rich independent country with systems and policies that work for all of us, we remain at the mercy of Westminster’s game-playing.
Ironically, the unelected UK House of Lords looks set to test the new Chancellor by attempting a fatal motion on the rushed-through policy without considering dire consequences for those marginally above – or not yet claiming – pension credit. Embarrassingly, the SNP’s now “ninentity” MPs are left to watch and wait for the outcome from their seats.
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I was bemused by the grandstanding histrionics in the chamber by a Green Party co-leader, herself a government minister until the then-first minister showed his predecessor’s Bute House Agreement the door in April.
Have she or her colleagues considered for a second that her party’s ideological priorities around the Cabinet table turned out not to be the actual priorities of the people of Scotland? If her party had used its government leverage to meet children’s basic need for high-quality universal free school meals instead of marketing gender ideology in schools and other costly blunders, the Scottish Government could have delivered on its promise.
Free school meals for Scotland’s primary 6 and 7 children could then have been extended to high schools.
As we approach the 10th anniversary of the largest democratic engagement event in Scotland’s history, on September 18, it is healthy for us all to reflect and understand why so many people across Scotland embraced participation in democracy like never before – or since.
Yet, to move Scotland forward, we must focus on Scotland in the present to shape our best future.
The Scottish Government undoubtedly faces real fiscal challenges as it brings its 2025-26 Budget to Parliament for approval. Still, those challenges also provide real opportunities to refocus on the problem-solving the SNP was once renowned for to drive real change.
One thing that would help win back public trust is that when the Government acknowledges a crisis – like those in drug deaths, homelessness, and male violence against women – it must then act with immediacy and intent to address the root causes.
Talk is cheap, and the public hearing the same hand-wringing “promises” on repeat is wearing their trust thin. I believe that, given the democratic opportunity, our people will determine Scotland’s best future.
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Political will can and will deliver independence democratically if the SNP work with others and do not give into self-defeating managed decline. Alba Party are a willing partner to turn the tide and remind Scotland of the success that engaged a belief across Scotland that a better future was possible in the uplifting campaign of 10 years ago.
I’ve made it clear to the Government that I’m ready to work with them to support their Budget, provided they support my “Unbuyable” Bill, currently in consultation.
This legislation, which is not a financial burden for a cash-strapped government but one where benefits could be immense, aims to criminalise the purchase of sex.
By doing so, we can support the predominantly vulnerable women trapped in the sex industry to exit, tackling up front the commodification that fuels the male violence against women crisis and consequences across society.
Our minority government and opposition both need to step up – the “Unbuyable” Bill is a critical first step to work together to create lasting change, protect women, and build towards a safer, fairer Scotland for all.
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