Meeting of the Parliament 06 December 2023
Not at the moment. I am just beginning, sir.
Nowhere is that more apparent, I am afraid to say, than in the Government’s reality-denying post-truth response to the damning programme for international student assessment—PISA—figures that were released yesterday. Scotland’s once mighty education system is continuing a 16-year trend of Scottish National Party-led decline. What was the Government’s response? It was, “Nothing to see here.” Meanwhile, a generation of Scots are being betrayed by a shambolic Government that has failed to deliver the education system that they deserve or even to preserve the system that they once had. That is utterly shameful.
If the Government is keen to discuss the real context of the fiscal framework review rather than the content of the review itself, so be it, because that context is certainly illuminating. The projected £1 billion funding gap for the upcoming budget between the Government’s spending pledges and the funds that it has available will rise to £1.9 billion by 2027-28. A large portion of that budget is determined by income tax receipts that are raised in Scotland. The utter failure of the Government to grow the Scottish economy has resulted in a stagnant low-investment economy that the SNP has created and that is holding Scotland back. Such a performance means that our fiscal position suffers year on year. For that, the SNP must accept responsibility.