Managing Scotland’s Finances

As an amendment to motion S3M-07330 in the name of Andy Kerr (Managing Scotland’s Finances), leave out from “despite” to end and insert “the previous UK administration presided over a deficit in each year from 2001, seven years before the longest and deepest recession in British history and the banking crisis and nine years into a 16-year-long period of sustained economic growth, until its ejection from office in 2010; notes that the previous UK administration intended to continue running deficits for a further seven years if it were re-elected; regrets the failure of the Labour Party to acknowledge any responsibility for the state of the UK public finances and the impact that the fiscal mismanagement of the Blair/Brown years has had on the devolved budget, and calls on all parties in the Parliament to ensure that the Scottish budget for future years protects the vulnerable from the consequences of Labour’s legacy of overspending and debt.”