LONDON MACHINE POLITICIANS SLAMMED FOR HIDING THEIR CUTS AGENDA

LONDON MACHINE POLITICIANS SLAMMED FOR HIDING THEIR CUTS AGENDA

The Scottish National Party seized on the report by the UK’s leading financial think tank – the Institute for Fiscal Studies – which contains a strong attack on the politicians of all three London-based political parties for their failure to come clean about the swingeing public spending cuts they would implement in the next Westminster parliament.

The IFS report said it was “striking how reticent” Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg had been during the campaign on how they planned to tackle the UK’s deficit.

The Scottish National Party’s Treasury Spokesperson Mr Stewart Hosie challenged the London-based politicians to “come clean” and admit the scale of their cuts agenda.

The SNP Government has already published a report last Thursday showing that it will take a period of sustained adjustment lasting up to 12 to 15 years before 2009/10 levels of expenditure are reached once again. Over this period, Scottish expenditure could cumulatively forego between £25 and £35 billion in real terms compared to a situation whereby the 2009/10 peak level of expenditure remained unchanged. The upper end of this scale would be more likely if the UK economic recovery were to be slower than forecast in Budget 2010.

The UK equivalent cuts figures would be between £250 billion on Treasury forecasts and £370 billion on the basis of slower growth.

Mr Hosie said:

“The London-based politicians are trying to conceal the extent of their cuts agenda from the electorate, but the information is now out in the public domain – thanks to the SNP Government report and the IFS study – and Labour, the Tories and LibDems must at last come clean during this campaign.

“On the basis of Treasury growth forecasts, the cumulative UK cuts over the next 12 years would be £250 billion. And on the basis of slower UK growth – which the latest figures indicate is the case – we are talking about cuts of some £370 billion over the 15 years it will take until spending reaches the 2009/10 levels in real terms.

“The London parties are merely debating the tip of the iceberg on television – they are desperate to hide the scale of UK cuts from the people before 6 May. No wonder they ganged up to keep the SNP and Plaid Cymru off the airwaves.

“Their position is now untenable, and the London parties must all be challenged on they will respond, and what exactly they are proposing for our key public services.

“The key issue over the next nine days is ensuring that political choices and priorities are changed from the intentions of the London parties, to ensure that the cuts fall on the things that the people of Scotland neither need nor want – Trident, ID cards, and a nuclear waste dump – and that our public services are protected.

“The London politicians – Tweedledee, Tweedledum and TweedleDem – are all tied into cuts of this scale. And the Tories would even impose an extra ‘Cameron cut’ on Scotland, by forcing through a worse funding formula without the consent of the Scottish Government or people.

“That is why ‘more nats means less cuts’, because only the SNP stand for dumping wasteful spending on Westminster vanity projects, protecting our great public services, and charting a course to Scottish prosperity.”