A dose of reality on the SNP’s 'Top Ten Achievements'

One: Increase to the Scottish Child Payment

The Government has increased the child payment from £10 per child per week to £25. It’s also extended the eligibility to include children under 16. It says the payments are part of its national mission of eradicating child poverty.

Except that eradication is now further away than it was, not closer. Audit Scotland says one in four children were in poverty before the pandemic and the cost of living crisis will make it worse. Child poverty has also risen since 2017 when targets were first established and you may have heard the children’s commissioner Bruce Adamson saying the Government is not making full use of its powers to protect children in poverty. And if they’re serious about eradication, shouldn’t they be doing more than trying to help children out of poverty – shouldn’t they be trying to prevent it happening in the first place?

Two: Free bus travel

2022 was the year the SNP introduced free bus travel for the under-22s to add to the free travel for the over-60s. That’s about two million people.

The question – and it’s a question with all universal benefits including prescriptions – is whether it actually achieves the opposite of its aim by disproportionately benefitting those from better-off backgrounds. It’s what the Law Society says about tuition fees: there’s a finite amount of money and much of it is being spent on funding students whose families can afford to pay. The same applies to buses. There are lots of people – some under 22, some over 60 – who could pay their bus fares but don’t. Can that be right?

Three: Record high health funding

The SNP is proud of this one: since coming to power, they say, they’ve almost doubled the health and social care budget from £8.3bn to £19bn. They’re also proud that Scotland apparently has the highest number of GPs per head in the UK and the best performing A&E services.

But do people give a damn about whether the service is better than England’s? The NHS in Scotland has just recorded its worst ever A&E waiting times. The head of the BMA has also said the service cannot survive in its current form. And the concept of NHS funding almost doubling is surely beside the point: you can double it, triple it, or quadruple it, but if it isn’t enough, people still suffer. But at least we’re better than England.

Four: Rent freeze and ban on evictions

The freeze on rents until at least the end of March and the ban on evictions will help renters by giving them some short-term stability and the knowledge that at least one of their bills will stay the same for a while. So that’s all good.

But what then? The real problem in housing is supply, particularly houses that people can afford, and the Scottish Government has just cut the budget for its affordable housing programme by around £40m. And is a rent freeze going to help or hinder supply? Sir Tom Hunter says he knows of two big schemes that aren’t going ahead until there’s more certainty about what happens next, so perhaps the answer is hinder.

Five: Investment in renewables

The Scottish Government says it has supercharged investment in offshore wind and Scotland’s renewable energy resources are massive. Question is: how massive? The government has been saying Scotland’s waters have 25% of Europe’s offshore wind potential. But naughty, naughty government – not true.

The reality was exposed by Robert Chote, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, who said recently that the government’s claims were inaccurate and gave an inflated picture of Scotland’s potential. Conclusion: more wind power is good, but let’s try and base it on the facts shall we?

Six: Cancer diagnostic centres

The government is rightly pleased about its three new rapid cancer diagnostic centres and there are more to come, but this is the NHS again so I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago.

Seven: More accessible dental services

What’s the truth on teeth? The Government says there’s been a 30% increase in the number of NHS dentists in Scotland and claims we have significantly more per head of the population than south of the border (there’s the ‘not as bad as England’ thing again). It also says it’s revised the service to reward dentists for seeing more NHS patients.

But a recent survey for the BBC found 82% of NHS practices were not accepting new adult patients. Scottish dentists have also warned cuts will make some basic treatments unavailable to NHS patients. David McColl, chairman of the Scottish Dental Practice Committee, says the Scottish Government should stop pretending everything is OK. “You can’t run a health service on soundbites and slogans,” he said. Ouch.

Eight: The railway in public hands

The nationalisation of ScotRail, says the government, heralds a service that works for everyone but these are the people who’ve been running the ferries – do we trust them on trains? We already know that the cuts to the train service brought about by the drivers dispute are likely to last well into next year. We – taxpayers – have also just been hit by a £137,309.91 bill for replacement taxi services for cancelled trains between April and September. So how do we feel it’s going so far?

Nine: Leading the world on climate justice

Scotland leads the world in tackling climate change, according to the government, thanks to its target of reaching net zero by 2045. But what’s the point of a target without progress? The Climate Change Committee says Scotland’s ambitions are at risk due to a lack of progress on the key milestones. So more hard work, less hot air please.

Ten: Adult Disability Payment

The Adult Disability Payment, which replaces PIP, will provide extra money for people who have a disability and what the Scottish Government says it wants to do is mitigate the worst effects of UK policy: Universal Credit for example, which can suddenly be cut off, leaving people with no money for weeks. But the question surely is where the Scottish Government will find the additional resources it’ll need to fund its welfare reforms. More taxes? More cuts? Who can say.