Remember when budgets were pure political theatre, complete with rituals and props?

One such tradition was giving the Chancellor something alcoholic to sip at the despatch box. While messrs Sunak, Osborne, Brown and Darling did not partake, Geoffrey Howe liked a stiff G&T and Kenneth Clarke a whisky.

Ordinary citizens played their part by stocking up on booze, fags and fuel before the prices went up. If they were lucky, a gentleman from the television might come along, assemble the family on the couch, and ask dad if he felt better or worse off.

Contrast this with the scenes yesterday in the Scottish Parliament. Taking centre stage, no tipple in sight, was a middle-aged woman. England hasn’t had a female Chancellor in 800 years, Scotland is now on its second. No biggie.

Even more remarkable was the plan this woman set out. In politics, as in physics, there are said to be certain immutable laws, among them that governments that tax high and spend higher will pay the price at the ballot box. There are no magic money trees, remember.

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Yet here was Shona Robison, Finance Secretary and Deputy First Minister, seemingly skipping through an orchard of money trees, shaking the boughs and distributing the fruit as she saw fit. More to some, less to others, the general trend contrasting with that of the orchard down the road. No wonder Farmer Sunak flew up to tell her off. She, in turn, said he had “a bit of a cheek” given the state of his orchard. He could cut taxes if he wanted to, she would protect the public services first and last.

Oh what fairytales we tell ourselves, this Scottish Government most of all. The reason Ms Robison has a £1.5 billion hole in her budget is partly due to rising inflation. The rest is the result of the choices she and other ministers have made.

Where did we think the money to settle public sector pay disputes came from, other than the public purse? Did we think Edinburgh was somehow more adept than London at heading off strikes? Had the wise Scottish Government squirreled away cash for such a rainy day? No. When pushed, it simply paid up.

Michelle Mone’s train wreck interview with Laura Kuenssberg wasn’t the only sit-down of note last Sunday. Ms Robison appeared live on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show to be quizzed by Martin Geissler. I know. An actual minister in a studio, answering questions. What madness was this?

Ms Robison, to her credit, is a low-drama kind of politician. Yet as the interview came to a close she suddenly became compelling. The talk had been of tax rises and how they might force people and businesses to quit Scotland.

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As she did in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Ms Robison went on about the “social contract” that exists in Scotland. Under this, certain people pay more into the pot but we all benefit from better public services, plus “free” stuff such as travel and prescriptions.

“People in Scotland will recognise that if they lived elsewhere they would not get access to free tuition, they wouldn’t get the Scottish Child Payment if they were on a lower income. All of these things are really important,” said the minister.

Note that she was drawing attention to advantages that some, but not all, Scots enjoy. She did not point to better education or a vastly improved health service because she could not. The facts show standards in those areas are falling.

She had other measures to show that Scotland was on the right path, and highly revealing they were too. When it came to foreign inward investment, she said, Scotland was the best-performing part of the UK outside London and the South East. Plus, we had net migration from the rest of the UK.

In other words, far from being some over-taxed hellscape that the middle classes would flee the first chance they got, Scotland was a very attractive place to live and work.

She was right about foreign direct investment and net migration. They are on a list of factors working in Scotland’s favour, but the Scottish Government cannot take all the credit for all of them. In some instances it deserves zero pats on the back.

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What is going on here? Why do more people want to move here than leave? I can only speak from experience. I’m going to call this phenomenon The Proclaimers Effect. Brace yourselves for sentimentality ahead; normal cynicism will resume asap.

Having spent a long time away from Scotland it took a while to settle back into the rhythm. I only realised how much my attitude had changed when I was watching the film Sunshine on Leith, a drama built around songs by The Proclaimers. It was a couple of lines from I’m On My Way that did it: “I took the road that brought me to your home town, I took the bus to streets that I could walk down.”

Streets that I could walk down. That was all, but it was everything. Other factors made me appreciate the place, but in essence, Scotland meant space, light, and a quality of life that was precious to me. Despite all the complaining I’ve done since, and will do again in future, I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

Not that I’m thanking the Scottish Government for this. Let’s sober up here. Despite what the party might think, the SNP is not Scotland. It is possible to take one to task while not condemning the other. Many of us do, and more will do so in days to come.

There is a social contract at work in Scotland, one that goes back much further than the SNP entering government. It was there at the reconvening of the Scottish Parliament. It was in large part what led to the reconvening.

What we mean by a social contract is a sense that we are more than a collection of individuals occupying a common space. We are a society with rights, responsibilities and expectations.

Scots will pay more if they believe the money is being well spent, but we cannot abide incompetence and waste of the kind that has occurred under this Scottish Government (and at Westminster too). Contract or no, do not take us for granted, and never take us for mugs.