It might be potholes shredding your tyres. It might be waiting lists. It might be slow police response times, but nearly all of us, in our own ways, are feeling just a little bit scunnered. Public services seem to be perpetually short of staff and funding. Nobody has enough money, not the NHS nor the police nor councils.

Since the pandemic, surveys show, we’ve been getting more disappointed and frustrated with the state of the state. Not only is there no more cash to give, there isn’t enough coming in to sustain existing spending. The Scottish Government last year identified a £5bn black hole in its finances arising by 2030, and there is great scepticism about ministers’ plans for clearing it, which rely heavily on fighting talk about civil service jobs cuts.

Earlier this summer, Prof Mairi Spowage of the Fraser of Allander Institute described the lack of realism coming from the SNP and other parties as “fiscal denial”. They are caught between public expectations of what good services look like and an inability to pay for them – at least as things stand.

Now, I’m not going to berate Scottish ministers for spending generously – in their shoes I’d almost certainly do the same. Some of that spending has been targeted at higher levels of financial support for the poorest households, particularly children, and makes Scotland a fairer country as a result.

But that comes at a cost, one the Scottish Government has tended to play down. Since the Scottish Government can’t borrow to cover day-to-day spending, under the terms of the devolution settlement it has to balance the books and it hasn’t been diligent enough about that. Everyone from the Auditor........

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