Another excellent performance by Nicol Stephen at FMQs last week, where he took the opportunity to challenge the First Minister over the SNP’s proposed £3bn of "efficiency" savings and expose the complete lack of detail in their published figures.Annabel Goldie is also a consistently good performer at FMQs and Alex Salmond's response to her question on Thursday about whether or not students are liable for Council Tax ("As Annabel Goldie well knows, it depends where they are staying") sort of sums up Salmond's oft-repeated lack of grasp of the actuality (students are exempt Council Tax no matter where they stay). Alex Salmond is great at the one-liners and can produce hot air for Scotland, but when it comes to the detail of policy, waffle-mode tends to set in. Have you seen how often he flicks through his briefing papers during questions but rarely actually refers to them?
Wendy Alexander's performance at FMQs this week was again, frankly, poor. Her decision to fail to ask her final question was ill-conceived (although it was hilarious to see Salmond's face when the Presiding Officer told him to sit down as there was no question to answer) but looking beyond the actual performances in the Punch and Judy atmosphere of FMQs, Alexander's questions did result in the SNP backtracking over their backtracking of their manifesto pledge on physical education in schools (follow that if you will). Never before has any government been dragged kicking and screaming to get it to implement its own manifesto promises.
Anyway, back to Nicol's questions on the SNP's so-called 'efficiency savings' ("cuts" to you and me) - the lack of detail in the SNP proposals is staggering - they simply won't be delivered, but I dare say Salmond will blame Westminster ...
Here's what Nicol had to say - you can read the full exchange by clicking on the headline above :
“How does the First Minister know that his list of efficiency savings of £3 billion over the next three years will not lead to cuts in public services?
“The truth is that most of the First Minister's efficiency savings document is simply blank space. Has he seen what is missing? For the £1 billion of savings in health boards, his document says that decisions on efficiencies and cuts are best taken locally; that is it. Another £1 billion is unexplained in local government and universities and colleges; there is no information. The Scottish Prison Service said that it was too busy even to fill in the form. It said that it was "unable to specify a description of the planned efficiency savings" because "The immediate priority for SPS is dealing with the record prisoner population.
“So £2 billion of the £3 billion in cuts and efficiencies is completely unexplained.Does the First Minister think that it is right that we have to rely on the shallow reassurance of his back bencher Alex Neil? Mr Neil told Radio Scotland yesterday morning that we should not be worried because the efficiencies are not cuts in the Thatcherite tradition. Are cuts in the Salmondite tradition okay?”
“How does the First Minister know that his list of efficiency savings of £3 billion over the next three years will not lead to cuts in public services?
“The truth is that most of the First Minister's efficiency savings document is simply blank space. Has he seen what is missing? For the £1 billion of savings in health boards, his document says that decisions on efficiencies and cuts are best taken locally; that is it. Another £1 billion is unexplained in local government and universities and colleges; there is no information. The Scottish Prison Service said that it was too busy even to fill in the form. It said that it was "unable to specify a description of the planned efficiency savings" because "The immediate priority for SPS is dealing with the record prisoner population.
“So £2 billion of the £3 billion in cuts and efficiencies is completely unexplained.Does the First Minister think that it is right that we have to rely on the shallow reassurance of his back bencher Alex Neil? Mr Neil told Radio Scotland yesterday morning that we should not be worried because the efficiencies are not cuts in the Thatcherite tradition. Are cuts in the Salmondite tradition okay?”