SNP Budget: a cold shoulder to the poor

As we all know there are only two parties in the Scottish Parliament, the SNP and the Greens and that's the way we like it. I read the papers, they see this situation the same way, crystal clear to us all, I don't care what the Scottish Parliamentary website says about all these MSP from other so called parties.

It's budget time for the Scottish Parliament and the minority SNP government has failed to get enough of the other MSPs to support their proposals which has meant that the two Green MSPs have come under a great deal of scrutiny as they could not vote with the SNP until their ambitious proposals for home insulation across Scotland were met.

The Green amendment, which would cost less than half a percent of the budget, would mean that every household in Scotland would save £340 a year in energy costs for a one-off insulation cost of about £500 per home. There would be a carbon emission reduction of six per cent in Scotland, just from this measure. Classic Green maneuver, trying to tackle poverty and climate change at one and the same time - greedy buggers.

The Telegraph describes the two Green MSP's as people "for whom nobody had ever cast a vote", which is a scandal and I wonder how it was possible to miscount the votes so drastically that two people got elected without a single vote between them, and I thought the House of Lords was corrupt!

Considering they are clearly in Parliament on sufferance why couldn't they just follow the Tories' lead who supported the budget after securing their key demand of cuts in local taxation. That's real green credentials for you.

The Times however puts it this way "the SNP leadership made the mistake of taking [Green MSP] Mr Harvie for granted. They left the last-minute dealing to the last minute, and presumed too much." In other words they thought the Greens would vote for something that they didn't believe in that didn't even have the concessions they were pushing for.

So will the Greens become giant killers, bringing down the entire government for their refusal to commit to home insulation? That's up to the SNP. Do they want to include a measure that helps tackle climate change and poverty or not?

Waves to Adopted Domain, Suitably Despairing and Two Doctors for the inside track.