About time ritual opposition hysteria over ‘underspends’ was exposed as such. The hypocrisy of Labour who ran such surpluses too—and even returned them to Westminster—is breathtaking.
Q. When is a surplus not a surplus?
A. When someone is talking down the Scottish Government.
Today the Auditor General published its annual report detailing an independent opinion on how well the Scottish Government is managing its finances (or how badly it is failing to do so).
This year, as last, there have been howls of anguish from those opposed to the Scottish Government at the fact highlighted by the Auditor General that the Government spent £350 million less last year than it was given in the Block Grant.
As the opening question suggests in most normal countries when your government spends less than it has available to spend then it is running what is known as a budget surplus. This is, especially in today’s economic climate, generally considered to be a “good thing“. Not so in Scotland, apparently, where the phrase to be used instead is “budget…
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davidsberry 