Budget deal shows Lib Dems are serious about getting stuff done - Alex Cole-Hamilton

Usually that means building a strong health service, a thriving economy and giving every child the best start in life.

The bizarre thing is that most other opposition parties failed to even try for the same

Getting things done underpinned my party’s approach to budget negotiations with the Scottish Government. It’s what has led us to support the Scottish Budget for the year ahead.

Let me be clear, this was not about letting the SNP off the hook for their miserable record after 19 years. To mistake our support as this would be to overlook the opportunities of the budget process - opportunities that are too important to miss.

The SNP do not have a majority in the Scottish Parliament; they require the votes of other parties to make a budget pass.

This gives opposition parties leverage. It allows my party and every other member in opposition to come to the government with a list of demands for the budget, ones that we hope will make life better for the people we represent.

This year, it was my Liberal Democrat colleague Jamie Greene who led our talks.

By staring ministers in the eye and driving a hard bargain, Jamie secured £178 million to support businesses through crushing rates rises. That includes a package over three years to help licensed premises like pubs, restaurants, hotels, music venues, licensed clubs and night clubs. Jamie secured an additional £4 million for self-catering businesses to cap their increases and provide a bridge to the next revaluation.

We promised that we would squeeze the budget for every penny possible. That’s why you will see £70 million for colleges - equivalent to a 10 per cent uplift on last year’s budget - and £20m for social care so that providers can uplift workers’ pay to the Real Living Wage.

It’s also why you will see £9.4m for hospices, helping them attract and retain staff by mirroring NHS pay rates.

To keep open projects, services and activities in disadvantaged communities, we persuaded the government to provide £5m more for the Investing in Communities Fund. We secured £2.5m to back the next generation of entrepreneurs.

And for our islanders, we extracted a massive £7.1m: money to remove peak ferry fares and kickstart long-term investment in transport links, harbours, housing, digital connectivity, schools and care facilities.

The bizarre thing is that most other opposition parties failed to even try for the same. Scottish Labour immediately revealed they wouldn’t let the budget fall, without making the government work at all for that support.

But by guaranteeing that the budget would pass, their move, ironically, deepened the need to get something out of it.

Nonetheless, the Conservatives stuck to their perverted principles: they shouted from the sidelines, played politics, never lifting a finger for their constituents. As a result they got nothing from this process.

The £300m secured by the Scottish Liberal Democrats in a whole host of areas demonstrates just how serious we are about getting stuff done.

At May’s election, there is a chance to vote for more of that grown-up, sensible politics by backing us on your second, peach ballot paper.

It’s as simple as this: the more MSPs we have, the more stuff we can get done.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​