Making the most of minority life

'I GET by with a little help from my friends" . . . the old Beatles hit best describes the SNP's gameplan for getting its Budget through a parliament in which it hasn't enough votes to go solo. Yet there was something of the sentiment of Frank Sinatra's My Way in Finance Minister John Swinney's handling of the parliament's spending plans for next year.

The distinction between the "Budgets" presented by the Chancellor in Westminster and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in Holyrood is worthwhile noting up front, because we use the same word to describe two processes with about as much in common as chalk and cheese.

When Alistair Darling presents his first Budget in the House of Commons next month, and when opposition MPs ask him where he's going to find the money for any new initiatives, GPs' new contracts for example, he'll be able to raise money from one or other of the forms of taxation he controls, if he can't shave enough off his spending on another aspect of NHS spending.

John Swinney can't pick and choose like the Chancellor because he can't use the whole range of direct and indirect taxes, or benefits, which the Treasury oversees, to try and make sure everybody who needs more, gets more. That's one of the definitive differences between devolution and independence or sovereignty. Had the Scottish Parliament the same powers as Westminster, John Swinney would have been able to use the extra revenue from North Sea oil and gas Petroleum Revenue Tax to invest in upgraded transport links such as the improvements to the A9, the Edinburgh Airport Link and a full tramway system etc.

But Holyrood's ability to invest in transport systems needed to keep up with Scotland's competitor nations in the 21st century is severely limited. Petroleum Revenue Tax goes straight to the Treasury in Whitehall. Scottish finance ministers can only move spending money around inside the "Block grant" Westminster gives Holyrood. So when the Finance Minister is asked where the money's coming from to scrap prescription charges, for example, he resorts to the use of smoke and mirrors, so his opponents can't do as Wendy Alexander did on Monday, and visit Gorgie City Farm to make the point that the SNP's prescription pledge will be paid for by projects like that.

I confess to being surprised that SNP speakers didn't make this point during the Budget debate. Instead most of them protested too much that a deal hadn't been done with the Tories, when a blind man running for a bus could see it. The Government missed a trick in not going up front and expansive with its tactics. Alex Salmond's somewhat theatrical gesture, in threatening to resign if the SNP's budget fell, didn't clarify the business going on in Holyrood for the public.

Amidst Lib Dem and Labour accusations of "backstairs deals", and name-calling "Tartan Tories", the minority government went about building support with the Greens, myself and the Tories in the same fashion as most of the governments in Europe when they have to win big votes in their parliaments.

My vote secured a fairer deal for Edinburgh and NHS Lothian. Hardly a backstairs deal, since I've been pursuing both for about seven years. I put my requests for a Capital City Supplement and a fairer share of NHS spending for Lothian in writing, and publicised them. I questioned the Finance Minister in debate.

So the Health Board will get £3 million more this year to kickstart an annual evening-up process, and the citizens of the Capital won't have to bear the full cost of providing national services and facilities. Minority government, don't you just love it?

Chorus of approval
DO I think we should enter the Eurovision Song Contest? Do Hibs play in green jerseys?

It's usually a feast of bad taste, worse songs and embarrassing presentation . . . but who can forget the first sight of what has become Riverdance, one of the most effective marketing tools ever for Ireland? Certainly, choosing a song, and singers would keep us interested/amused/despairing for weeks. And there would be the suspense of not knowing whether English and Scottish juries would vote for or against each other's song. But most of all, there will be a chance to do something well, as Scotland, on an international stage.

No ordinary hero
JOHN SMEATON came through to have lunch with me last week. The hero of the failed attempt to cause death and injury in Glasgow Airport is just as he comes across – a very pleasant, grounded man. He makes no false or inflated claims about himself, or his instinctive reaction in tackling one of the men with murder on their mind.

He admits, without either false modesty or exaggeration, that he enjoys having complete strangers talk to him and that his experience has propelled him on to a steep learning curve . . . and he's adamant his three colleagues who did as he did should also be honoured.