SNP Fail
Posted on January 28, 2009
Shortbread futures plunged today, after Scotland’s minority nationalist government failed to get its budget passed through Parliament, despite support from the Tories. First Minister (and former Royal Bank of Scotland economist) Alex Salmond’s £33 billion budget is almost exactly the same size as the financial shortfall caused by his casino-capitalist cronies, or to put it another way, Scotland’s corporate debt is greater than its annual budget. We should not need to add that history is repeating itself — first as tragedy, then as farce — with echoes of the Darien expedition, and its delusions of imperial grandeur, which bankrupted Scotland in the 17th century.
This is the most serious crisis yet for the nationalists and Salmond’s ‘arc of prosperity’, and they have reportedly reacted by putting the party on ‘election footing’. The SNP has attempted to distract voters from its neo-liberal agenda with shameless, saltire-wrapped grandstanding, while cosying up to billionaires and pushing through the backdoor privatisation of Scotland’s forests. They have failed to honour election promises, with the notable exception of the abolition the Forth Road Bridge toll, which contributes further to congestion and environmental damage in the Central Belt road corridor. It is no small irony that the party which claims to bleed tartan, to love Scotland, to have the country’s interests at heart like no other, is presiding over economic and environmental depredation.
