Minority rule no problem for SNP

THE SNP may be a minority government, but the majority of the time it manages to get its own way. Last night's vote on the first stage of the budget was closer than most, but the Nationalists still came out ahead and can now expect their £30 billion spending plans for next year to get the final green light within weeks.

The SNP won 64-62, thanks to the support of the Tories, the abstention of the Greens and after securing Margo MacDonald's vote by promising extra cash for Edinburgh.

Afterwards, Finance Secretary John Swinney hailed the result as evidence of the Government's success in building consensus. But a lot of the time, the Government's victories are just as much to do with the failure of the opposition parties to get their act together and mount any kind of united front.

When the SNP Government was formed without a majority, the talk was of almost every vote being on a knife edge as ministers haggled daily with different opposition parties in a bid to gather the necessary support for their proposals.

The closeness of the numbers – 47 SNP, 46 Labour, 16 Tories, 16 Lib Dems, two Greens and one independent – seemed to promise a permanent state of precariousness for Alex Salmond and his colleagues.

Labour and Lib Dem politicians trying to come to terms with being evicted from government consoled themselves with the prospect of making life difficult for their successors. Even if they could no longer rule the roost they would at least be able to inflict regular defeats on the SNP or squeeze concessions from them with the threat of it.

The tight arithmetic was also going to give the Greens unprecedented influence in the affairs of state. Despite their number being reduced from seven to two, they would be wooed for their vital votes with all kinds of eco-promises.

But very little of that has come true. There have been close votes – but far fewer than many expected. And the only serious defeat for the Government was on its bid to scrap Edinburgh's trams – and that took three attempts before Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories could agree on a clear motion to save the project from the axe. Even a motion asserting the importance of a single British Olympic team failed to pass despite the parliament's pro-union majority.

Government insiders admit they had expected far more trouble from the opposition.

One source says: "Everyone said minority government would be difficult – and it is. But majority opposition is difficult too. Not only have you got to get people to agree across party lines, but you have to think about the consequences of what you are putting forward. You can't just oppose for the sake of it."

The budget was long held up as the crucial test for the SNP. It was all very well coming up with populist policies like scrapping bridge tolls, abolishing the graduate endowment fee and scrapping prescription charges, said the opposition. But just wait till they tried to come up with a budget to pay for it.

There are still plenty pitfalls ahead on a whole range of the Government's policies, but it looks as if they have managed to get past what their opponents said was going to be their biggest hurdle.

Labour and the Lib Dems are bitter about the Tory support for the Government and say it prevented any genuine cross-party negotiation over the spending proposals.

One senior Lib Dem says: "We have all known for a long time the SNP and the Tories were doing a deal on the budget, so the SNP has not had to come out and talk to anyone else.

"The Tories have been totally irrelevant for the last eight years. Now someone occasionally thinks they might have a use after all and for them that's progress."

When the budget was going through the committees before yesterday's vote, the Lib Dems argued there was not enough detailed information to come up with alternative proposals. And their MSPs chose to abstain rather than moving their own amendments or supporting anyone else's, though they voted along with Labour when it came to the crunch last night.

In the committees, Labour took what could be seen as the responsible approach for the main opposition party – tabling a series of amendments which proposed more funding in certain areas but also identified other areas where it could come from.

But they failed to win support from any of the other parties and ended up being accused of wanting to make cuts all over the place.

The Greens were unhappy about the big road-building projects in the SNP budget – including the new Forth Road Bridge because they suspect it will end up as an additional bridge rather than a replacement.

But in the end they could not bring themselves to vote against a spending plan which also included major investment in renewable energy.

Perhaps it should not be a surprise that politicians from different parties find it difficult to agree. But if they feel they have a common enemy and politics is the art of compromise, it has to be asked why the opposition is not a bit more successful.