The First Minister and I agree on this: Scotland's public finances are under pressure.

But acknowledging a difficult financial position is one thing. Presenting workers and the public with a false choice between accepting cuts or abandoning hope of sustainable public finances is quite another.

That is the fundamental issue at the heart of this week's Programme for Government.

We were told, in effect, that significant reductions in public spending are unavoidable and that the answer lies in a programme of "public service reform".

A week may be a long time in politics. But 260 weeks, the normal tenure of a Scottish Government, can also be very short when massive reform of the public sector, or for that matter an actual joined-up industrial strategy, is to be embarked upon. If the public sector reform agenda is also meant to align with the government's target of reducing costs by 2029, that task just got even harder.

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This current Government might have our sympathy were it not for the fact that it is now embarking on its fifth consecutive term in office.

The much-quoted Christie Commission delivered its report in 2011, a couple of years into........

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