Humza Yousaf may have killed the Bute House Agreement, but it’s John Swinney who buried it.

Yesterday, in his first Programme for Government, the First Minister all but confirmed the scrapping of the conversion therapy ban, and indicated that plans for rent controls would be weakened.

All this came just a day after his Finance Secretary, Shona Robison, lobbed £23.7 million off the active travel budget and confirmed that ScotRail would be bringing back peak fares.

READ MORE:

With a billion pound black hole in the budget - temporarily plugged with cuts to public sector spending and £460m of ScotWind cash - there was little room for manoeuvre.

It wasn’t just the ambition that was reduced, the actual Programme for Government itself was 13 pages shorter than last year’s.

That’s despite both containing 14 Bills.

Mr Swinney’s government maybe less verbose than his predecessor’s, or maybe it's down to the lack of Greens or fewer pictures of the FM.

One word that was notable for its absence was universal.

In 2023, Mr Yousaf said the government and councils would work together to “prepare schools and infrastructure for the expansion of universal free school meal provision to Primary 6 and Primary 7 pupils during 2026".

In 2024, Mr Swinney says the government will “work towards further expanding free school meals to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in Primary 6 and Primary 7".

Last week, the First Minister described free school meals, along with free tuition and free prescriptions as a key part of his administration's "social contract".

Higher earners pay more tax and in return “everybody gets access to a range of services".

“That’s the way I want it to stay,” he said.

The decision to effectively means test school meals for older pupils comes after the Scottish Government confirmed they will means test the winter fuel payment.

While that followed the new Labour government changing eligibility for the payment in the rest of the country, it does mean that the social contract is coming under strain.

What needs to be universal and what needs to be paid for? Should taxpayers be subsidising the kids of well-off parents, or wealth pensioners?

What about free childcare, the baby box, and tuition fees? Free bus travel for all under-22s as well as those over 60?

Under the SNP, it felt like this debate was settled, but with money as tight as it is, and with flagship policies like the Scottish Child Payment costing as much as they do, Mr Swinney might have little choice but to restart the discussion.