On October 20th 2010 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP, announced to the House of Commons the UK Government’s detailed ‘Comprehensive Spending Review’. This economic blueprint for the duration of the current parliament outlined a series of measures which combined amount to the greatest round of governmental budget cuts since the end of World War Two.

On November 17th 2010 Finance Secretary John Swinney MSP delivered the draft Scottish Government budget to the Scottish Parliament. In this he confirmed that the Scottish budget would lose £1.3bn from its overall budget in the financial year – just as Dr. Andrew Goudie and the Independent Budget Review team last year had both speculated.

Read more...