27 June 2007

Where is all the money coming from?

Another day, another spending commitment. Well, two or three spending commitments, actually. The Herald reports:
Plans to increase the number of developing countries which benefit from Scottish aid were unveiled yesterday by the executive.
Linda Fabiani, the Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, also confirmed that the executive wanted to double the amount of money its spends on international aid from £4.5m to £9m.

Peanuts really but this is more substantial:
Ministers signed off an agreed position on a new Forth road bridge which will go before parliament today.

While this could be really budget-busting:
The cost of free personal care for Scotland's elderly people has risen by 60% since it was introduced, bringing a renewed warning yesterday that it risks running out of control.
As the numbers who benefit from the scheme passed the 50,000 mark, newly published figures show that the cost rose from £149m to £237m between 2002-03 and 2005-06.

Even before the May election, there were hints coming out of St Andrew's House that all was not well with the Executive's future finances. Let us hope that Mr Swinney has it all under control.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Probably Gordon Brown. Every time he splurges money in England the Executive gets a ton of Barnett consequentials. Hence why the last election was not about the real debate of tax-or-spend but an auction to see who could spend their pocket money from the Chancellor the best.