Off-peak rail travel and 100,000 extra GP appointments. Those were the two headlines from the SNP’s latest programme for government. As best as I can tell, they’re not linked.
You can travel to your doctor’s surgery by any method of your choosing, though you’d be wise to avoid the A96. They’re still not fully dualling that.
The programme for government speech is sometimes called Holyrood’s answer to the King’s Speech.
It has one advantage, at least for the king, in that he’s not required to be there. Nor, apparently, are SNP MSPs.
The separatist benches were, in keeping with the content of the remarks, noticeably empty.
The First Minister’s annual address forgoes pomp and circumstance and outlines the legislation his government will be introducing in the coming 12 months. It’s nice that he gives the Supreme Court a heads up on its future caseload.
Despite the thinness of the gruel he was slopping down, or perhaps because of it, John Swinney was a chipper wee fellow.
He assured the chamber that ‘a corner has been turned’, though when you U-turn as often as this government does everything becomes one big circle. It’s a wonder the man doesn’t get dizzy.
Russell Findlay was like a bushman with a machete tearing into John Swinney ‘s programme for government
John Swinney said peak-rail fares will be scrapped in a bid to woo voters
But he knows how to read polling numbers and sees that his government is back on track for another term in power after next year’s devolved elections. (If his mob can get re-elected with this record, you have to wonder what they’ve devolved to.)
You could tell he was getting carried away with himself because he promised to take forward his programme in the ‘same spirit’ as the budget process, in which ‘four parties were able to come together to negotiate in good faith’.
Swinney is not one of life’s natural negotiators. If he’d been at Versailles, the treaty would still be at the draft stage. When he’s boasting about compromise, it’s because he figures he’s already won.
Russell Findlay cut through the hubris like a bushman swinging a machete.
‘No wonder one in three of his own MSPs couldn’t be bothered to turn up to listen to this,’ he spat.
He went right for the most attractive promise, a dramatic increase in GP consultations, reminding everyone that a similar promise was trotted out eight years ago by the Nationalists but came to nothing.
The Tory leader’s rebuttal was met with snarls from across the way, especially when he objected to plans to splash more cash on ‘the economic case for independence’.
‘He’s not going to find one because there isn’t one,’ he jabbed.
‘I see my appeal for common ground hasn’t made much headway with Russell Findlay,’ the First Minister riposted, with mock discouragement.
The First Minister delivered his programme for government – but his policies were met with disdain
Swinney prefers verbal brawling to all that cross-party kumbaya business and set about ripping into the ‘billion-pound flaw’ in Findlay’s call for tax cuts.
Anas Sarwar roared to life with a thunderous volley of blows against the SNP leader. Quite why he chose this exact moment to come out swinging, I’ve no idea but the belated show of gumption is welcome.
‘Is that it?’ the Labour leader queried, letting the question linger in the air long enough to prompt some awkward shifting on the SNP benches.
Speaking of which, he also noted the sparse numbers behind Swinney, cruelly adding that although Nicola Sturgeon had turned up to Holyrood for an event that day, she wasn’t in the chamber to hear her old pal’s speech.
Sarwar confirmed his agreement with all the policies Swinney had ‘nicked from Labour’, quipping that this was ‘not the borrowing powers I thought the SNP had in mind’.
He was otherwise unconvinced, remarking that: ‘After nearly two decades in government, if the SNP had a good idea we’d have heard it by now.’
Savage stuff, but a pity we had to wait till Labour was so down in the doldrums to hear it.
If Swinney has grown overconfident it’s because his opponents have been underperforming for too long.
