The SNP have proved they’re unfit to represent Scotland by collaborating with the Tories

No one that is, except the SNP, who immediately and enthusiastically collaborated with George Osborne’s ruse by joining in his attacks on the Labour Party. While many dubious allegations were made by various Nationalist apparatchiks, I shall concentrate upon the official statement by their economic spokesperson, Stewart Hosie MP. His sole accusation, beneath the rhetoric, was that I and other Labour colleagues were in favour of spending cuts and tax rises. Let me therefore address that point directly.

I am for certain cuts. I am for cutting Trident, a hugely expensive relic of the Cold War, and a stain on our conscience as a nation. I am for cutting the huge subsidies to private landlords through housing benefit, by a mass house building programme that is already part of Labour’s manifesto. I am for cutting the amount it is necessary to spend propping up poverty pay, by building upon Labour’s achievement of a National Minimum Wage, with both a higher rate and harsher penalties for employers who break the law. And I am for cutting the massive transfers of public money to the foreign governments and shady billionaires who run our transport network, by bringing services back into democratic ownership.

I am for certain tax rises. I am for putting the top rate back to where it was when Labour left office, so that those who have done well out of the global economic downturn contribute to help those who have lost out. I am for a tax on property wealth, so that those who have made millions by simply owning houses pay a portion of that back to fund the common weal. I am for reversing the planned reduction in Corporation Tax, which is favoured by the SNP and the Tories, in order to fund a reduction in business rates and encourage small firms in our cities. And I am for raising money by cracking down on tax evasion and avoidance, which robs the people of the UK of £25 billion a year according to the TUC.

Above all, I am for a balanced budget, because as long as a country is reliant upon borrowing, upon the murky world of international finance, those who lend to it will have a say in how it is run. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Borrowing for capital investment, or for short periods during downturns, is justifiable, and perhaps inevitable. But every penny that goes on interest to unaccountable bond holders is, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Mr Hosie and the SNP may entertain themselves by playing along with the Tories’ parliamentary parlour games. My constituents, who have faced years of hardship at the hands of the ruling parties of London and Edinburgh, do not have time for such nonsense. Whether they were actively conspiring with George Osborne or simply duped by him, once again the Nationalists have demonstrated how unfit they are to represent the people of Scotland at Westminster.

Ian Davidson is the MP for Glasgow South West and Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee