The recent Scottish budget was the first since the ending of the Bute House Agreement and therefore the first in the new minority government situation.
In the past, when there were these minority government situations, opposition parties knew they had a better chance of getting ministers to take note - and act upon - some key asks.
Discussions would often go right down to the wire and there would be talk of deals and possible early elections if a minority government couldn’t get the votes it needed to pass a budget.
Indeed, at the end of last year, there was talk of an early election this time and John Swinney was warning us about the consequences.
Then, all of a sudden after Christmas, the opposition parties, with the exception of the Scottish Conservatives, said they would help pass the budget. First of all, Labour made the extraordinary decision to abstain (without getting anything in return) then the Greens, Liberals and Alba all announced they would vote in favour of the budget.
So it was a done deal for weeks which possibly explains why the chamber was only half full on budget day.
The Scottish Conservatives voted against the budget and let me explain why. We believed it was bad for business, bad for taxpayers and bad for local government and because we know it will not alleviate the current challenges facing families and businesses across Scotland.
The budget fails to address the financial sustainability issues raised by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in relation to SNP social policy, fails to deliver the radical modernisation in public services expressed by Audit Scotland, and fails to act upon Scottish Financial Enterprise’ concerns regarding the consequences of higher taxes.
Government waste of taxpayers’ money remains truly staggering and SNP solutions to every problem simply involves throwing more money at it. Rather than taking measures to grow the economy, we are seeing a welfare budget which is rising to levels completely out of control. Shona Robison gave us no explanation how the benefits bill will be paid for when it is set to increase from £6.3 billion in 2024-25 to £8.8 billion by the end of the decade.
This budget has no new ideas for public sector reform – rather it is a set of unfunded policies such as mitigating the two-child benefit cap and the partial reinstatement of the winter fuel allowance which are simply attempts to wrongfoot an increasingly unpopular and floundering Labour Party.
Only the Scottish Conservatives are offering solutions to grow Scotland’s economy and reverse years of economic decline. We would deliver bold tax cuts for middle earners and make Scotland more competitive with the UK. We would also offer targeted tax cuts to pub and hospitality businesses which have been neglected for too long.
We are unashamedly pro-growth because supporting a successful economy is the only way to deliver higher living standards. We believe in better value for taxpayers’ money and understand that outcomes always indicate the success of inputs.
We cannot support a budget that maintains Scotland’s place as the highest-taxed part of the UK while public services – such as our healthcare, education and transport systems - continue to deteriorate.
