John Swinney is correct to be concerned about the Scottish Government’s block grant being cut by George Osbourne. Across the UK, in the General Election over 60% of voters backed parties offering alternatives to Tory austerity, so it is particularly galling to see further cuts being implemented so soon.
The cuts Scotland will face amount to £170m or 0.6% of the Scottish Government’s budget. To put that in context, Mr Swinney underspent his budget last year by £444m and the SNP council tax freeze costs councils around £500m per year.
What should John Swinney do? Unlike the rest of the UK, we have Holyrood and can use it to overturn this Tory cut. Indeed, we could even end massive SNP underspends and their cuts to our schools imposed via the council tax freeze.
Dr Scott Arthur 