Why SNP face key test over Budget that could define their future

The inability to turn the A9 between Perth and Inverness into a dual carriageway on time has become an icon of those failures. Planned to be complete by next year, the current estimate is that it won’t be finished until 2035. Given their track record, more than a few have their doubts about that deadline.

However, in an interview we publish today, the current Transport Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, at least offers some hope that improving Scotland’s transport infrastructure is her priority.

‘Traditional’ stepping stone

Recognising, with a welcome frankness, that there had previously been a “high turnover of transport ministers” and even that it had “traditionally” been seen “as a stepping stone to higher office”, she said she had taken the job to help the government with “a difficult portfolio” and planned to stay. Where there is the political will, there is usually a way.

However, the SNP are about to face a particularly keen test of their priorities. As John Swinney’s minority administration seeks the support of other parties to pass their Budget, the Liberal Democrats have made clear that ending government spending on independence is a key demand.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Greens have warned that cuts to “the already incredibly modest sum spent on independence preparations” would make it “impossible” for their MSPs to support the Budget.

Not a betrayal

So the SNP have a choice. Carry on wasting millions on things like independence papers that few people read or instead, in these straitened times, spend that money on things of tangible benefit to the country.

To some nationalists, the latter option might seem like a betrayal, but it is not. The SNP will never win majority support for independence if voters don’t trust them to deliver it. If they can’t build a few dozen miles of dual carriageway, how can they ever build a new nation?

Competence in government is in both the SNP’s and the national interest. If they fail to understand that simple truism, their decline will continue.