The Budget has passed.
We have known it would for quite some time since Labour said they would abstain – even before the final deals were done with the Greens, Lib Dems and Alba – and we knew all along that the Conservatives would vote against it.
The SNP is trumpeting record NHS investment, a new winter fuel payment for the elderly next winter, plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap next year, extra support for Grangemouth and £15m for Dundee University.
But John Swinney’s party also had a row with Labour.
Finance secretary Shona Robison said the Budget included things Labour backs but they were not voting for it – she said you can’t just will the ends, you must will the means.
Labour frontbencher Michael Marra threw her words back at her because SNP MPs had voted against increasing the Scottish spending in the UK Budget.
The Lib Dems listed their Budget gains – a new Belford Hospital in Fort William and a new Edinburgh Eye Hospital.
The Greens said that it delivered more free school meals.
The Tories attacked it as a high tax and wasteful Budget.
But the Budget has passed – although with a year until the next election, the rows are just ramping up.
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