David Maddox: Aunty's Bloomers

It's been one of those weeks in Holyrood where the main activity has been to spot the various gaffes.

In a week where the shocking level of illiteracy in Scotland was debated by MSPs we had two good examples of the problem. Firstly, on Wednesday, in his statement on the Aberdeen bypass John Swinney's speech writer managed to include the words "pubic transport" which the minister himself avoided saying after a quick intake of breath.

Then we had the SNP press release on Wednesday headlined: "MURPHY ON MANEAUVERS OVER CALMAN COP OUT" - that probably should be maneuvers, manoeuvres or manoeuvers.

Having said that, journalists are in no position to throw stones about typos, including this one.

The real bloopers came from the Labour and the Tories.

On Wednesday we had the extraordinary controversy about the spads (special advisers) - the party employees, usually spin doctors, on the government payroll. Labour claimed to have revealed plans by the SNP to have limitless spads ending the current Scottish Government cap of 12.

This was a great story until the moment we all realised that the reason for this was because of legislation being put through Westminster by the Labour UK government.

There was some irony that the revelation came from a question put to a minister by former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander and the Labour press release attacking the SNP quoted another MSP David Whitton (pictured left). Before becoming MSPs both Ms Alexander and Mr Whitton were Labour spads. Hypocrisy did not really cover it.

Yet despite this farce, even Labour was to be outdone on Thursday by "Aunty" Annabel Goldie and her performance in FMQs.

She went on the attack about the cost of the Scottish Parliament only to be ruled out of order by a rather cross Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson (himself a Tory) because the parliament is not the responsibility of the government. We then had the following exchanges:

Annabel Goldie: Let me clarify for the First Minister that the Scottish Government allocates the budget for the running of this Parliament and that he leads a party that has a member who sits on the corporate body—
The Presiding Officer: That is actually incorrect, Miss Goldie. The Scottish Government does not allocate that budget.
Annabel Goldie: I apologise for any confusion, Presiding Officer.

At which point, somewhat flustered she appeared to be unable to construct a question.

Ms Goldie (pictured right) has many admirable qualities and is well liked, but she has not had a hit in FMQs for some time now. The last time was over links to the Megrahi release and Qatari loans.

It seems that a whispering campaign about her leadership has begun again. It will be interesting to see how things develop after the UK general election. Her job may depend on the Conservatives making some real gains in those 11 Scottish seats they have targeted.

Eddie Barnes - Budget predictions

Time for Holyrood to take back some attention from the Westminster pre-election fun. The Scottish Government's budget is laid before parliament today ahead of the first debate next week. Expect stern warnings of non-cooperation and brinksmanship from the opposition parties, and sage words from the Scottish Government about politicians' responsibilities to the public.

I expect the SNP Government to get the budget passed this time round without quite the same fuss as last year, when it was defeated by opposition MSPs amid totally chaotic scenes. My prediction is for both the LibDems and the Conservatives to have come on board once push comes to shove. The deal they cut with the SNP won't be about getting sweeties and pet projects however; rather it'll be about getting the credit for some populist cuts on public sector waste. Meanwhile, I expect Labour to dig their heels in, demand the reinstatement of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, and then - once its been turned down- head straight to the printers for a fresh batch of "SNP anti-Glasgow" leaflets. I doubt the Greens will be given quite as much leverage as they had last year.

This will be the last budget round before the real cutbacks start kicking in this time next year. And leaving aside some token gestures its unlikely that we'll get much debate in this budget round on how the Scottish Government intends to tackle it - particularly as the SNP is about to go into an election promising to protect Scots from the worst of Labour-Tory cuts. Ominously, the same applies with bells on this time next year, when the budget round will take place just a few weeks before the 2011 Holyrood campaign. It all suggests that Scotland is in danger of lagging behind the rest of the UK in preparing for the spending crisis which is assuredly just around the next corner.

PS. A great story emerging this morning - reports that English Health Secretary Andy Burnham is considering minimum pricing on alcohol. This after Iain Gray's Scottish Labour contingent had declared their forthright opposition to such a plan. Oops. Did right hand talk to left hand, we wonder?

Update: Downing Street has declared it would not be "sensible" to go for a minimum pricing scheme. Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy has also told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme that punishing the majority would be "the wrong thing to do."

David Maddox: Things that should not be done with parliamentary equipment

Labour MSP Karen Whitefield (pictured top left) has been landed in a spot of bother today by her parliamentary researcher who put out the following e-mail:



From: <Karen.Whitefield.msp@scottish.parliament.uk>
Date: 27 October 2009 10:22:46 GMT
Subject: Telephone Canvassing for Glasgow North East
Dear Colleagues
Just a reminder that Usdaw have agreed to open their Edinburgh Office on Wednesday night for MSPs/ MSP researchers to help with telephone canvassing for the Glasgow North East by election.
The office will be open between 5.30pm and 8pm.
If you can spare an hour or so to help out, please let me know ASAP - a voting button is attached.
Usdaw will also be opening up next Wednesday evening so if you could help then, please let me know.
Thanks
Cara
Cara Hilton Parliamentary Researcher to Karen Whitefield MSP for Airdrie & Shotts



Unfortunately Ms Hilton managed to send this e-mail not only to Labour MSPs and researchers, but every single one in the Scottish Parliament, including all the other parties. In fairness Ms Hilton did realise her mistake and try to recall the e-mail but too late.
For those who do not know this breaks the code of practice, which is that MSPs must not use their staff during work time or parliamentary facilities for political campaigning of this nature.
The reason for this rule is that tax payers' money should not be used for party political activities.
Naturally, complaints were made and Ms Whitefield has had to give the authorities assurances that her office has not done this before nor will it do it again.
But there was an interesting lack of public complaining about and parties calling the media to cry foul, which suggests that this sort of thing may be more widespread than this one indiscretion.

But this is not the only indiscretion to come my way today. I note that Lib Dem Dunfermline and West Fife MP has been a bit sulky about the beeb on his Twitter.
He wrote: "is not impressed by Radio Scotland's Scotland@10 - I did them a favour by staying late but then got cut out half the slot."
I guess worse things happen, even to sulky MPs.

David Maddox: Holyrood not Hollywood

Behind the scenes in the Scottish Parliament this week an interesting battle has been fought on a vital issue for the good of the nation.

I am of course talking about the issue of whether MSPs should be allowed to film themselves within the parliament.

It seems that in June this year the parliament's Corporate Body - the group of MSPs that decide how it is run and what should rules apply - banned MSPs filming themselves.

I understand this was less to do with filming and more to do with new SNP Glasgow list MSP Anne McLaughlin being accused of stalking various people and photographing them in parliament without their permission. She then posted some of the pictures on her Indygal blog. Admitedly this was done just before she was elevated to being an MSP after the death of Bashir Ahmad.

Rather typically of the Corporate Body, it did not tell anybody about its decision, but did ask parliament staff to search Youtube for breaches of the rule.

The whole issue only became better known when Labour MSP Elaine Murray asked permission to film a guided tour of the main chamber (which was always out of bounds) for an information video for her constituents.

The answer came back quickly - no, not in the chamber, and whilst you are at it not anywhere in parliament as well!

This caused some anxiety among MSPs many of whom have started their own regular Youtube broadcasts and film themselves at work. The garden lobby, pictured above, is a popular filming venue. Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott and Labour leader Iain Gray both have their own channels.

The idea was pioneered in Holyrood by that bete noir of the cybernats Lord George Foulkes, Baron of Cumnock. He has made it a point to try out new media first, which is why he also has the unofficial title of First Lord of the Twittery because he was the first member of the upper chamber in Westminster to join the social networking site.

The noble lord was so infuriated by the new rule that he told me: "I hope to become the Scottish Parliament's Youtube martyr."

He had decided to defy the new rule and continue with his weekly broadcast from the Scottish Parliament, but a meeting on Wednesday of the Corporate Body has ensured that he will not be hauled up before them.

I am told that the CB members decided to relax the rules as long as parties and MSPs are not trying to make party political broadcasts and not filming people who surreptitiously.

Interestingly it was a double victory for his lordship, who also persuaded the parliament to allow his wife's name to go on his Scottish Parliament Christmas cards. Previously spouses had been banned because they were not officially part of the parliament, but as MSPs pay for the cards themselves the CB members this week finally relented to pressure from Lord Foulkes.

If only he were as successful for the 500 Bausch and Lomb Livingston workers losing their jobs.

David Maddox: And recognition for a true local hero...

Nice to see that an old friend of mine from Aberdeen is prominently featured in a Scottish Parliament exhibition Moving Stories which is touring the country, starting this Friday in the Granite City.

Walter Baxter (pictured right) is one of the two most impressive campaigners* I have been involved with in my journalistic life. Against the odds he fought and won a battle to stop Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's brain unit from being shut down. He was up against what is often termed the "Central Belt conspiracy", in this case to centralise all brain treatment in Edinburgh. Walter almost lost his life 11 years ago when he suffered a haemorrhage, so he knew all too well the dangers faced by a two hour ambulance journey from the North-east to the Central Belt.

I am pleased to say that as the former Holyrood correspondent of his local paper, I was able to provide him some help.

He also set up a highly successful charity called Brainhelp which has provided help and support for many who have suffered serious brain injuries or haemorrhages.

*There must be something in the water in Aberdeenshire which instills a bloody minded spirit, because the other most impressive campaigner I have met is another North-easterner Cdr Eddie Grenfell.

He spent many years trying and eventually succeeding to get formal recognition for the veterans of the Second World War's Arctic convoys, and while I worked with him on the campaign in Portsmouth where he now lives, he originally hails from Peterhead.

David Maddox: Back to the grind

Today marks the end of the summer recess, so obviously Holyrood is crawling with eager MSPs delighted to be back at the chalk face....
Well actually there's hardly an MSP to be seen this morning, because they have decided to extend their holiday a little by delaying all the committee meetings this afternoon.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, not that Scotland's short of them, I would think the committee meetings were deliberately timed to clash with the publication of the Megrahi papers, when obviously political hacks will be otherwise engaged.
So to the main event of the day, the publication of those papers by the Scottish and UK governments. Great anticipation and all that, which means they will inevitably contain virtually nothing of interest. If there was a staggering revelation in them then you can bet they would not see the light of day. What may be more interesting is what is not published.

David Maddox: Emergency item for the Knesset

On 8 January this year, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, with the support of all parties bar the Tories, led an emergency debate in Holyrood on the crisis in Gaza. This was followed by a letter of protest demanding a ceasefire from the Israeli government, whose citizens were also under bombardment from Hamas missiles. No message was sent to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas and it was the second such communication from the SNP government to Israel.

And this was despite Holyrood having almost no responsibility for foreign affairs.

I wonder, as he stood by Gordon Brown yesterday and watched the British PM field questions on the international consequences of Scotland sending home a notorious Libyan mass murderer and terrorist, whether Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu thought: "We really should have an emergency debate on this in the Knesset (Israeli parliament)." And further noted: "I must send Alex Salmond a letter outlining my government's deep concerns about his government's actions in this international crisis."

For some reason I would be surprised if he did.

David Maddox: How Holyrood tightened its belt for the recession

The Scottish Parliament authorities spent £16,949 on 13 new tables and 48 new soft chairs for the Garden Lobby.
I have pictured some of them (right) outside Holyrood's members restaurant, using my mobile phone's not particularly good camera, so apologies for the dubious picture quality.
But getting back to the cash, admittedly such a sum would not suffice for the back room (or even dry rot treatment or swimming pool garden) of an MP's third home, but it does seem bizarre when Scotland is supposed to be short of money. The old furnishings seemed to be in reasonable shape.
Anyway here is the official spokesman's explanation: "We have increased the seating capacity in the Garden Lobby by more than 50 per cent. This is one of the busiest parts of the building and on business days in particular there can be a shortage of seating for people holding meetings or meeting visitors. The old tables and seats will being re-used throughout the campus."
This is not the same official spokesman who is about to be recruited for £38,000 a year at the spendthrift parliament.

David Maddox: No harm in letting children see the feathers fly at Holyrood

The above picture is a sight that the authorities in the Scottish Parliament wish to protect the "innocent" eyes Scottish children who tramp through the doors each week on school trips. It is of course the mangled corpse of a pigeon - winged vermin - with its killer a hawk.

As reported in the Scotsman this week, Holyrood's chiefs are finally putting out a contract for a falconer to scare off the pigeons who are covering the Scottish Parliament with poo, not least the windows of the Scotsman office in the building, which the same authorities seem to be adverse to cleaning.

But one condition for the successful hawker is that the bird of prey involved does not actually kill a pigeon for fear of "a PR disaster" if it should slaughter one in front of a school party.

It seems to me that this kind of molly coddling, woolly minded thinking is on the same lines as the recent decriers of Action Men toys who believe their return will lead to a nation of killers.

The vast majority of youngsters who visit the parliament eat meat and one hopes study biology so actually seeing nature at work may even be educational.

You have to wonder too whether the people who worry about falconry violence have watched the sort of things children can see on television these days or play on their computers. Seeing an actual death rather than an animated one may give them a few more thoughts about what the consequences of violence actually are.

But, maybe my views are shaped because I am originally a Norfolk boy, quite used to the realities of "cun'ry loif." My first job, when I was five, was on a farm catching and killing chickens by wringing their necks for which I earned the princely sum of £5 in a week. The experience neither left me mentally scarred nor a psychopathic killer.

However, I should say that I did not have quite the same slightly scary determination as this 11-year-old son of a chicken farmer.

David Maddox: Remembers the future

I spent part of my morning talking to a group of P7 primary school children (10 and 11-year-olds), about the Scottish Parliament and working here. They were members of a class who were visiting on the Holyrood education programme and it was good to see that the experience of being in the parliament and sitting through 30 minutes of debate had not been an endurance but an interesting experience for them.

I gather some of the class have even expressed an interest in becoming politicians and two of the pupils I spoke to want to be journalists. Another couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to be a policeman or a television journalist and another, who was impressed with the parliament building (until I told him about the leaks and cost), wanted to be an architect.

What it goes to show is that, contrary to popular opinion, it is not the intention of all our youngsters to become footballers, models or reality TV stars. And it should be said that these were not privileged children from a private school, but a pupils from good state primary in Edinburgh.

The experience of visiting the parliament then was a very positive one for them and could help to shape their dreams and aspirations.

The excellent Holyrood education programme which allows for hundreds of school pupils to have this experience each year is unfortunately over subscribed and schools have to book early or not at all more often than not.

Which put a whole new perspective for me on the rather unseemly row yesterday over whether it was right to suspend FMQs or indeed whether the whole day's business should have been cancelled.

Had the SNP got their way (although they claim it was the Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson's idea) and cancelled all parliamentary business yesterday then there would have been nothing but a tour of the building with an empty chamber (pictured above) for those primary school children to experience.

For many that may be their one chance to have that sort of valuable experience and it would have been a shame if they had lost out for want of politicians wanting to make a short sighted decision, which I am sorry to say, seemed to have more to do with headlines than actual sorrow.

As sad as the helicopter tragedy was, people's lives are unfortunately curtailed in accidents almost everyday, yet their deaths are not taken as a reason to bring the business of democracy to a halt.

So while it was appropriate to mark the sad deaths of those 16 men, politicians should remember that life has to go on and that they should remember the living, in particular the children who are our future.

David Maddox: Who turned the lights on?

There is an international conference on climate change going on in the main chamber at Holyrood today chaired by Louise Batchelor (pictured right), a former BBC environment correspondent who was known at the Corporation as "the Tree Fairy" for her fondness of doing stories on saving trees from chainsaws.

But one speaker has noted that while people from around the world have been blethering on about saving energy to tackle the problems of climate change, he has been "blinded" by the vast array of lights on in the chamber even though "it is a sunny day."

A slightly embarrassed Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, who is also chairing the meeting, had to explain that the lights were needed for the live broadcast and podcast of the event.

"Otherwise we would all seem to be sitting in darkness," he added.

David Maddox: Welcome to the Greens' new keeper

One small aspect in all today's excitement over the reshuffle which has largely gone unnoticed is who has taken over the newly promoted Housing Minister Alex Neil's (pictured right) unofficial job as the doorkeeper to the Greens.

As mentioned previously in the Inside Holyrood column, Mr Neil shared a small section with the Greens, known to some as the SNP pocket, at the end of one of the SNP's corridors in the MSP tower of parliament.

The interesting dynamic here is that since the budget debacle - the Greens voting down the first attempt, then being publicly humiliated in the second when Finance Secretary John Swinney effectively dumped their free for all insulation scheme - the SNP can no longer rely on the two Green MSPs to get them out of a hole in tight votes.

But, with the combative Mr Neil now occupying a ministerial office, the Nationalists have obviously decided to persuade the Greens back on board with kindness.

Step forward Linda Fabiani (pictured left), who the Greens have always seen as one of their own in all but name - "a fellow traveller" as one Green source put it to me. Added to that there are few nicer politicians to be found in Holyrood, with the possible exception of the Greens' own Robin Harper.

So Ms Fabiani may have lost her job as Minister for Freebies (cultural events and foreign trips), but she may well have the comfort of finding herself among friends with the unofficial job of coaxing them back to the SNP corner.

Next Year's Budget - Eddie Barnes

I realise everyone has had read quite enough about the SNP budget negotiations, but here's one final word as the parties look ahead to next year's round.

As Alex Salmond said in the chamber yesterday, the budget for 2009-10 is going to involve real cuts in the Scottish Government's coffers. This is an entirely new development for our MSPs who have only had to decide since 1999 on how exactly they are going to eat their way through an ever-bigger cake. It means that the focus of opposition parties needs to change from what they can get from the SNP government to what they can the SNP Government to save.

The LibDems look signed up for this, and it is clearly fertile territory for the Tories (if they are prepared to risk looking nasty). Who knows, even Labour might have the courage to do what it knew it had to in government but lacked the political will.

They should start work now on what bureacracy and waste can be hacked off in the next 12 months so that, when the axe falls this time next year, it isn't our schools and hospitals that suffer.

David Maddox: Devolution can be inspiring

It is not often that a Scottish political blog will open with a Cross of St George. However, in this case, this is not the flag of England so often reviled by people in Scotland, but the banner on display is to pay honour to a group of guests from Lombardy in Italy who visited Holyrood today.

The red cross on a white background is also the flag of Milan and is usually used as the flag of Lombardy too, although the official one is a green banner with a white flower (also pictured). It just acts as a lesson to remind us that symbols can mean different things around the world and that we should be careful with our prejudices and not leap to conclusions. The Catalonians, recent hosts of Alex Salmond, the First Minister, also fly the Cross of St George. The shared heritage is the Crusades.

However, it was the purpose of the Italian delegation's visit that was interesting. They were press officers for the Consiglio Regionale della Lombardia, translated as the Regional Council of Lombardy, something akin to the old Strathclyde Regional Council in size and influence.

Their interest in devolution brought them to Scotland, visiting Holyrood and The Scotsman to learn more about how it functions. This is because there is a push for devolution in Italy, particularly in the wealthy north where many believe too much money is lost to support the poorer south. It is interesting to note that Italy was only unified in 1861, making it relatively young compared to the United Kingdom's 300 years.

In Italy the party, which is part of the national ruling coalition, called Lega Nord (Northern League), first pushed the independence agenda, but now favours the devolution solution after seeing how successful it has been in Scotland. It used to model itself on the SNP- their leader Umberto Bossi (pictured right) loved the film Braveheart - but now has pretentions to the centre right rather than the centre left.

My guests told me that a recent national referendum on the issue failed because of oppositon largely in Rome and the south, but was strongly supported in the north. They clearly hope that some day their consiglio will be a parliament and devolved government.

All this goes to show that, however much we complain, and however many national conversations of Calman type commissions we set up, the devolution settlement in Scotland is seen internationally as a success and a model to follow and is something of which both Scotland and the UK as a whole can be justly proud.

David Maddox: The strange case of the Scottish Inter Faith Council money

Before I finally sign off for the day, it is possibly worth relating one episode that happened in Holyrood today, which vexed many of our elected representatives.
No less than five points of order were made about an answer Alex Salmond, the First Minister, made to Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott in First Minister's questions last week.
The issue was over the funding for the Scottish Inter Faith Council. Mr Scott asked why it had not received any funding and why staff had been notified of redundancy.
Mr Salmond stood up and, without even looking at his notes, said it had been resolved, the SIFC would get its money and no staff would lose their jobs. This completely wrong-footed Mr Scott and made him look rather foolish, much to the mirth of Salmond and his faithful followers.
But it emerged quickly that it was not poor research from the Lib Dems that had led to this apparent gaffe. An e-mail went to SIFC staff just before FMQs saying they would have to renegotiate and the author of that e-mail, SIFC convener Major Alan Dixon (Salvation Army), sent another e-mail to Mr Scott the evening after FMQs saying it had not been resolved.
It seems that the final agreement was made yesterday, but the SNP maintain that it was really done and dusted by Justice Minister Fergus Ewing before Christmas.
Today Mr Ewing made a "point of order" stating that point and later correspondence from Mjr Dixon from January 6 before FMQs on January 8 confirming this was passed around.
Counter points of order were made by Mr Scott, his predecessor as Lib Dem leader, Nicol Stephen, and Labour's Richard Baker. All said that as the matter was only resolved yesterday it was clear, in their view, that Mr Salmond had misled parliament.
The Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, gave his stock answer that ministerial answers were not his responsbility but was part of the ministerial code which is policed by Mr Salmond.
Mr Fergusson said he would reflect on the issue and possibly make a statement after voting if there was anything to add. He did not, so we can assume there wasn't, even though Independent MSP Margo MacDonald in a fifth point of order earlier had suggested he was responsible for maintaining standards in parliament.
It has built up some momentum for parliamentary rules to be changed to try to force ministers to apologise if they mislead MSPs in the chamber.
But as one final addendum to the whole sage, the SNP spin doctors have let slip that the real problem was that SIFC was asking for £360,000 next year, triple its previous grant of £120,000.

From all this the following conclusions have been made by various observers:

1. Mr Salmond should not have hidden behind a junior minister today and made a statement himself.

2. Either Mjr Dixon is very confused or he was trying to be clever by playing one party off another to get an awful lot more money.

3. Mr Scott has been made to look a fool even if he was possibly misled.

4. It is not entirely clear if the misleading was done by Mjr Dixon or Mr Salmond or if there was any intentional misleading at all.

5. Parliamentary rules do need to be changed to make ministers more accountable for what they say and give the Presiding Officer, even if he is reluctant, a stronger policing role.

6. Alex Salmond cannot be expected to police himself or other ministers through the ministerial code and an independent body or commissioner may be required.

7. When all is said and done SIFC have enough money to continue and nobody will lose their jobs, which has to be the bottom line in all this.

David Maddox: Poor timing

We are in the middle of the first budget debate of the year. It is also the first debate where the one minute warning from the Presiding Officer for when MSPs are running out of time has been stopped.
No doubt this is because of pressure from broadcasters who were fed up with "one minute" booming out in the middle of decent quotes.
But what it has meant is that many of our MSPs, including some front benchers, have not had a clue when they were supposed to finish only for their m,icrophone to be cut off in mid-sentence.
The official report tomorrow will show some interesting ends of speeches and should perhaps end with "..." in many cases.
Not least was Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee whose last words in his speech were: "Let us now here the case against..."Against what? We may never know, he was literally cut off in mid-sentence.
I guess some have not practised their speech beforehand for timing and others have been caught by interventions, but for an important debate it is a bit of a mess.
The reason speeches are timed out is to stop Westminster style waffling, but conversely, it means that, unlike in the Mother of Parliaments, there are few if any Holyrood speeches that will be considered great pieces of oratory.

David Maddox: Laying down the rules

This is a posting for the Scottish political train spotting class.
The morning's Scottish Government briefing to journalists has finally clarified the rules on what happens with budget votes in terms of the Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson's casting vote.
Mr Fergusson has a duty to support the status quo, which is different to convention in Westminster where the Speaker supports the government.
So if this afternoon there is a tied vote, which until yesterday's decision by Labour to not oppose the budget at this stage looked possible, Mr Fergusson would support the Scottish Government. This would be done on the basis that at this point the budget is being discussed, so he would vote to support the continued discussion.
The tricky moment for the Scottish Government comes on the third and final stage vote on January 28. This is the stage where Labour are threatening to join the Lib Dems to vote against the budget and the Greens have suggested they might vote against as well if they do not get their £1 billion free insulation scheme.
If all three parties banded together and the Tories and Independent Margo MacDonald backed the SNP there would be a tied vote- 64 each.
In these circumstances Mr Fergusson would have to vote down the budget on the basis that discussion was over and the status quo is the 2008/09 budget.
All in all it means that opposition parties are better holding their fire for as long as possible, but that their only real weapon is the political nuclear option.