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Johnstone's View 15th February 2008

Last Wednesday afternoon, the Scottish Parliament set its budget. We had said throughout the budget process that the Conservatives would make clear how we would vote only once we knew what we were voting on. Last Wednesday we finally had the full picture.

With a minority SNP government in office for the first time, this budget debate was the most significant in the Parliament's history and the culmination of a three-month process that tested the mettle of all parties in the Parliament, each coming to the budget from a different perspective. The government proposed and the Parliament disposed.

We know that, if any one of the opposition parties had a free hand in the matter, this is not the budget they would propose. It is not what the Conservatives would have produced if we were in government. However, we had to ask ourselves whether it was better than the alternative and, indeed, whether it was better than the budget that was put forward last year by Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The answer to those questions was yes, on a range of issues. There are parts of the Conservative manifesto that are delivered by this budget, such as the abolition of the tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges, an end to ‘ring fencing’ of local government finance and a stronger emphasis on efficient government. The Government also made further concessions.

We Conservatives make no apology for saying that our job in the Scottish Parliament is to bring about the implementation of the policies on which we fought the election and which we firmly believe to be in the best interests of Scotland. We do not do so by pursuing false consensus or following the path of shabby compromise which was the abiding characteristic of the Labour / Liberal coalition government from 1999 till 2007, but by working with other parties where there is genuine agreement between us while, at the same time, being unafraid to point out robustly where we strongly disagree.

We said that the level of policing proposed by the SNP Government was inadequate for the purpose. We argued that we needed at least an extra 500 police officers over and above the number proposed. Last Wednesday, the Government finally agreed with us. That outcome is the indisputable consequence of the direct involvement of the Conservatives in the budget process and it is a victory for common sense.

Conservatives have long argued that Scotland needs a new strategy to tackle the menace of drugs in our society. We believe that the previous policy was misdirected and wrongly focused. Thanks to the intervention of Conservative leader Annabel Goldie, that will now be changed. That is another victory for common sense.

The Conservatives said that Scotland's small businesses should benefit immediately from a sharp reduction in their rates bills and that it needed to be introduced far more quickly than at the leisurely pace first proposed by the SNP Government. That has now been agreed, for the benefit of more than 150,000 businesses in Scotland: many small shopkeepers in Scotland's towns and villages; newsagents; butchers; bakers; grocers; delis; cafes; and, yes, even the several hundred post offices that the Labour Government is determined to kill off but for which the measure will offer a new spark of life.

One of the long-running debates surrounding the Scottish Parliament since its inception has been about tax-raising powers and whether they should be extended. Given the record of Labour and the Liberal Democrats of pushing up the level of tax while in government — a habit they are still unable to shake off as evidenced by their contributions to last weeks debate—it is small wonder that the extension of tax raising powers is a cause for alarm and concern in many quarters in Scotland. Last Wednesday however, we witnessed the exercise of the Parliament's existing tax-cutting powers.

I am pleased that the SNP has finally come round to the Conservative point of view and I welcome that conversion. They have a long way to go on a whole lot of other issues, but progress is progress when it is in the right direction. If their conversion signals a permanent change of attitude, last Wednesday may prove to be a day of historic significance.

I believe that the Conservative group in the Scottish Parliament can hold their heads up proudly. We played the parliamentary game, by the rules, with the sole objective of improving the governments spending plans for the benefit of the very people who voted us into that Parliament to protect their interests. That is why I voted for the budget.