It’s been a big week for the Scottish Parliament. On Tuesday, Holyrood passed a much stronger equal marriage bill than we have south of the border. Yesterday it passed a budget which, with different ideas incorporated from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, will make a huge difference to many people in Scotland.
The Holyrood budget process is very different. You’d never find George Osborne publishing his budget 3 months in advance, letting all parties contribute to the process and then putting an amended budget through Parliament incorporating new ideas. It’s to Finance Secretary John Swinney’s great credit that he adopts such a collaborative approach even when his party has an overall majority. In 2009, when they had a minority administration, there was high drama when the budget was voted down. After a bit of delicate negotiation, everyone stepped back from the precipice and sorted it all out, though.
One major thing about the budget yesterday is that a Labour amendment to mitigate the full effects of the Bedroom Tax in Scotland was supported not just by the Government, eventually, after much last minute negotiation. The amendment said:
That the Parliament agrees that the Budget (Scotland) (No.3) Bill be passed but, in so doing, considers that funds be allocated in the total amount needed to fully mitigate the so-called bedroom tax in Scotland through discretionary housing payments and, if necessary, other schemes administered by local authorities and housing associations to ensure that no tenant need face eviction as a result of the bedroom tax.
What is not so widely known is that among the list of those voting for this amendment are the names Rennie, Hume, McInnes, McArthur and Scott. The five Liberal Democrat MSPs voted in accordance with the wishes of Scottish Liberal Democrat conference last year. Let’s hope that that sentiment goes forward into the manifesto development process. Labour have promised to repeal it and so should we. Overcrowding is a problem, but this is not the way to deal with it. If someone is expected to pay extra for something then they need to have the opportunity to avoid it and in many areas there simply aren’t smaller properties for them to move into. It’s unfair and it needs to be abolished.
In terms of exclusively Liberal Democrat input in the budget, free school meals and a significant expansion of nursery education for 2 year olds are big wins, and Willie Rennie, who has spent the last year and a half pressing for more and better childcare, has been appointed to the Scottish Government’s Early Year’s Task Force. Willie said yesterday:
Parents will be glad that the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Government have worked together constructively to secure this important expansion of free childcare for two-year-olds.
The SNP Government’s agreement with our plans enables us to vote with a budget which we believe will enable more people to get on in life.
It is a significant achievement that by 2015, 15,400 more two-year-olds will have walked through the doors of nurseries to take up their free place. By giving more children the best start in life, Scottish Liberal Democrats have helped to secure the fairer society we all wish to see. I am sure that the parents, who will be able to return to work, and the people who will see more jobs in the nursery sector, will be grateful for this victory of common-sense.
In supporting the Scottish Government’s Early Years Taskforce to deliver these new places I will be bringing the experiences of the many parents I met during my 18 month campaign to the SNP to extend childcare. I will also be drawing from the common issues on childcare which my expert summit highlighted last year.
* Caron Lindsay is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings