Ministers provide Christmas cheer

John Knox
Political reporter, BBC Scotland

Santa Claus has made a surprise appearance at Holyrood, a week ahead of Christmas.

He took the unlikely form of Finance Minister Tom McCabe who distributed £250m of extra money to Scotland's 32 local councils to encourage them to be good and keep council tax rises down next year to below inflation.

No-one is forgetting that the election is coming up on 3 May and Mr McCabe did his best to sound cheerful and generous.

Local authorities are to receive £250m of extra money

But he did look rather like an awkward father at a childrens' party who had been required to climb into an ill-fitting red suit with white trimmings.

Behind his false beard, he wore his usual stony accountant's face.

"The executive has kept its promise," he told MSPs. "And we expect local government to keep its promise to continue to exert downward pressure on council tax levels."

The increase in central government funding is 4.7% over last year, nearly double the rate of inflation.

It means local councils have been given £8.7bn for next year and at First Minister's Questions, Jack McConnell said: "There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for any council in Scotland to have a council tax increase above the rate of inflation, or anywhere near the rate of inflation."

But the Scottish National Party's Nicola Sturgeon predicted that Labour would introduce the 10th annual "inflation busting increases in a row".

Council tax had gone up 60% since Labour came to office, she said. The average householder now pays £1,129 a year.

Stop digging

Mr McConnell accused the SNP of having a "£1bn black hole" in its local government budget due to its policy of freezing council tax rises.

"My advice is when you are in a black hole, you should stop digging," he said.

He was also referring to another black hole identified this week by the Scottish Executive - the deficit Scotland is running with the rest of the United Kingdom.

Total public spending in Scotland is £47.7bn but total revenue from taxes is only £36.4bn, leaving a deficit of £11.3bn.

Scotland's deficit with the UK £6.2bn even with oil revenues

That comes down to £6.2bn when oil revenues are taken into account.

But the SNP said the calculations were biased and wrong and Scotland in fact subsidies the rest of the UK to the tune of £2.8bn a year.

The Conservatives wanted to know exactly what target the executive was setting local councils for council tax rises.

Annabel Goldie accused Mr McConnell of "more Bute House babble" over council tax and said Labour should join the Conservatives in introducing a 50% reduction in council tax for pensioners.

Flooded

Reality finally came dripping into the parliament when the SNP's Tricia Marwick asked for a thorough review of Scotland's flood prevention programme.

Forty householders in her bailiwick, Milnathort in Kinross to be precise, were flooded out of their homes on Wednesday night when 3ft of water ran through the main street.

A series of walls and water channels, only just finished at a cost of half a million pounds, failed to keep the floods at bay.

The first minister said, of course, there would have to be a review. But he pointed out that the flood prevention budget had increased 10-fold since 1999.

Milnathort in Kinross suffered extensive flooding

MSPs spent most of Thursday wading through the final amendments to the Legal Profession and Legal Aid Bill.

To loud squealing from lawyers, the politicians went ahead with their plan to set up an independent complaints commission.

There had to be a compromise, however, to make sure the bill complied with European human rights legislation.

There's to be a limited right of appeal to the Court of Session when punishments, like the proposed £20,000 fine, are handed out to offending lawyers.

The compromise was engineered by Jackie Baillie, the former government minister, who now runs a Mrs-Fix-It operation from the Labour backbenches.

Sex offenders

She has fixed charity law, she is fixing disabled parking spaces and this week her special sub-committee has tried to fix up a half-way house on sex offenders.

It's suggested that sex offenders who refuse to co-operate with the police after leaving prison should have their details published on the internet.

Another prominent figure on the Labour backbenches this week has been Wendy Alexander, the former "minister for everything".

She has bounced back to Holyrood after having twins. She now convenes the finance committee and its report on Tuesday flagged up the need to use some of the executive's reserves to increase funding to local councils. By Wednesday it was done!

Mention of these two formidable ladies draws attention to an exhibition which has just opened in the Scottish Parliament commemorating the Suffragette movement.

Presiding Officer George Reid views the Suffragette exhibition

It's 88 years since women won the right to vote. Now there are 50 women MSPs at Holyrood, 40% of the total, among the highest percentage of any parliament in the world.

Patricia Ferguson, one of six lady ministers, dashed the hopes of the Conservative Murdo Fraser who wanted to move the Stone of Destiny out of Edinburgh Castle and back to Scone Palace.

She did however raise hopes of a brighter cultural future for Scotland with the publication of her culture bill.

It will bring together the Arts Council and Scottish Screen in a new arts development agency.

But of course there has been plenty of criticism from the arts world...it's too little, too late.

Arts world

Many are unhappy the national orchestras, ballet and opera companies are to be centrally funded and that local councils get away with only having to provide a list of events "from time to time" to tick the box of giving every citizen a "cultural entitlement".

The Green MSP Chris Balance said the bill would end up in the "museum of lost opportunity".

Finally, we have been treated to music from two bands at Holyrood this week.

On Tuesday evening, the National Jazz Orchestra blasted their way into Committee Room One to launch the Scottish Jazz Federation.

And on Thursday, around the Christmas tree in the Garden Lobby, the Salvation Army played us a selection of carols as Santa Claus went by.