This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

One way or another John Swinney is going to have to eat a pie baked by the Scottish Greens and decorated with the word ‘humble’ in large pastry lettering.

He has only two choices – that’s his big problem. His options are: cave into the Greens on a raft of policies, or have the SNP’s erstwhile partners in government shoot his budget down in flames, thereby potentially collapsing his own administration. Talk about frying pans and fires.

There are some Greens still so incensed at the way Humza Yousaf booted the party from power-sharing that they want the SNP to squirm and suffer, beg and plead, and still fall.

Yousaf’s move against the Greens was catastrophically clown-shoed. Thinking he’d quell an anti-Green rebellion in his own ranks, he threw away his Holyrood majority and insured his demise in the face of what became unwinnable parliamentary votes.

That recent history clearly points towards what’s awaiting Swinney come budget time. Nationalist agony, and Green vengeance, was merely delayed.

The Greens have been testing the waters of late. Earlier this month, the Greens put a motion before Holyrood calling for “the most effective and progressive use of existing tax powers”. Ross Greer, of the Greens, said the party could reach agreement with the SNP if Swinney was “willing to deliver”.

Significantly, the SNP supported the Green motion – an........

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