It wisnae the SNP - honest!

It could be said that there are excuses, damned excuses and the SNP's excuses. Sometimes Calton thinks that maybe we should all vote for independence, if only to deprive the SNP of excuses, since their usual strategy is to blame Westminster for everything. The latest example is the reduction in spending on infrastructure under the new NPD (non-profit distributing) programme, which is all the fault of budget cuts by the coalition government down south. (Calton also notes that, in true Orwellian fashion, spending has been 'reprofiled' rather than cut.) It looks like the SNP hoped to get away with this reprofiling exercise unnoticed, however that plan was scuppered by Tory MSP Gavin Brown, ably assisted by Labour's Richard Baker, who surely deserves to win quote of the week with this contribution to the debate: "We were told this new scheme [NPD] would be transformational from the old PFI/PPP schemes. Well, in some ways it has, because at least under the old scheme projects were being delivered." Ouch. Unfortunately, the SNP had enough of a majority to defeat Brown's motion expressing disappointment in the results of the NPD scheme so far. Double ouch.