These are exciting times, if our new Deputy First Minister is to be believed. By far the clearest policy direction we have received from the new Scottish Government so far has been aimed at those who use and those who deliver our desperately underfunded public services. You’d almost believe from the glee, that this is what the public were after when they went to the polls earlier this month. Except nothing could be further from the truth.

Polling research released by the IPPR Scotland last week underlines the public aversion to managed decline: 44 per cent of people told the pollsters that failing public services are leading to Scotland’s challenges. Yet, as the IPPR points out, during the campaign, politicians frequently argued that Scotland needs to reduce the size of the public sector. Previous IPPR Scotland research has highlighted the likelihood that cutting public sector employment will damage public service provision.

It was not exactly encouraging therefore, in a slimmed-down Scottish Cabinet, to see the creation of the position of Cabinet Secretary for Public Sector Reform. The First Minister could have chosen a Cabinet Secretary for Public Sector Excellence. Everyone and their dog knows what public sector reform means. It is manager-speak for cuts. These cuts aren’t a secret. Under the guise of reform, the SNP plan to cut the public sector workforce by 0.5% in this Parliament. The IFS estimates this would amount to cutting 18,000 public sector jobs over the next five years. By any standard, this is austerity wrapped up in a yellow rosette.

Why must stable Scotland put up with all this English chaos and nonsense?

The........

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