Programme of inaction is all SNP has to offer after 18 years in power

First Minister of Scotland and SNP leader John Swinney speaking at Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh, to mark one year to go until the next Holyrood election (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)

But judging by the Programme for Government he presented to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday – apart from the annual budget legislation it contained only four new bills and one was a re-hash – his plan is not to do much at all. And Labour had the cheek to call Rishi Sunak “Inaction Man”.

Perhaps I exaggerate, because he did announce some welcome common sense measures – welcome because we have been calling for them for some time, like stripping children who repeatedly disrupt bus services of their free passes, lifting the stupid and unenforced alcohol ban on trains and kicking the proposed ban on so-called “conversion therapy” for young people seeking what could be catastrophic gender alteration drugs and surgery into the long grass.

Conservatives have also argued the tax burden is too high when the SNP has ratcheted it up, and that it’s too complex while they add extra tax bands. Now, with an election a year away, John Swinney says there will be no more income tax rises or new bands this year – at least not until after enough people are suckered into voting SNP. And as an electric car driver I’ve repeatedly argued that the charging infrastructure is inadequate if there is to be any chance of meaningfully reducing emissions, and now there is a plan to “help deliver” around 24,000 more public charging points by 2030. Yet only a few weeks ago we were told to be grateful they had managed to install 6000, despite there being only five years to go before the SNP wants to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel vehicles.

This being the SNP, John Swinney couldn’t help putting a retread on old announcements to kid voters into believing there’s a lot going on. A promise to increase GP numbers was first made eight years ago, but what infuriated me was talk about investment in health services when we are still waiting for an NHS app which is proving such a success in England, and we don’t have an electronic single patient record system which would do away with so much time-wasting bureaucracy. As for scrapping peak-time rail fares – which we were assured wasn’t close to breaking even when the experimental scheme was scrapped seven months ago – it will do little to attract passengers when most services are infrequent and unreliable and will ultimately mean higher rail fares for all passengers. That or higher subsidies, which means taxpayers who don’t use trains regularly will foot the bill, like everyone who lives and works in Edinburgh.

Readers may be surprised to learn that amidst all the continued talk of Westminster austerity, the SNP still has enough of your money in the kitty to maintain a £36 million climate change programme for the “Global South” despite foreign affairs being beyond its remit. It includes sending millions to Rwanda, which readers might recall was such a dreadful place that illegal immigrants couldn’t possibly be sent there. If after 18 years in power, all the SNP has left to offer is old plans recycled or pinched Conservative proposals, it’s John Swinney who really is Inaction Man.

Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian