LIZ Truss wasn’t the only leader leaning on the grim weather to make a point about the storms facing the country as she entered Downing Street yesterday.
Nicola Sturgeon deployed her own meteorological metaphor at Holyrood as she published her Programme for Government.
Last year’s cover featured a carefree family having fun on a sunny day below a wind turbine.
The future’s bright, the future’s green, was the message.
This year’s showed several generations wrapped up tight against the cold as they cycled in the frost. Winter is coming.
Normally, the PfG is a relentlessly optimistic affair, a mixture of new Bills and government initiatives designed to lighten the load and make you want to vote for the author.
Even last year, as the country crawled out of the shadow of the Covid pandemic, it chirruped on about ambition, rebuilding society and grasping opportunity.
This year’s is very different. It is not unrelentingly bleak. There is still much that is positive for the year ahead, as well as plans for the medium and long-term.
But there is a new, darker, chillier tone throughout.
In her introduction, Nicola Sturgeon warns we face “the most severe economic upheaval in a generation” with “livelihoods – and lives – at risk”.
With a dig at Westminster and a plea for more powers to change that outlook, she adds: “We face difficult choices ourselves, both as a nation and as a government.”
The bottom line is a horrendous squeeze on public spending and inevitable cuts to services.
Ms Sturgeon told MSPs this year’s Holyrood budget had shrunk a “staggering” £1.7billion in real terms since December because of inflation rising from 2 to 10 per cent, while recent public sector pay deals to avert strikes have cost £700m more.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney will deliver the grim details of what that means today.
The Iceman Cometh.
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