FOR the minority SNP government to push their Budget Bill through parliament, the Scottish Greens leader in a slippery hero cape came to the rescue.

Finding £220m additional spending was indeed a superman move, until the breakdown was revealed. It seems the finance secretary had a few million stuffed down the back of the sofa from a £125m underspend in the current financial year.

With a nudge from the Greens, he agreed to punish middle-class Scottish families to the tune of £400 per year by not increasing the higher rate threshold, making Scotland the highest taxed part of the U.K. Other cash was found by drawing £60m from the ‘business rates pool’ and a saving of £6m in borrowing charges.

The deal doesn’t constitute a u-turn and will hurt local councils such as East Lothian, who will now bear a real terms reduction in funding of £3.2m.

The SNP have landed a double blow to local residents – cuts to the budget for our local services and higher council tax bills.

Overall, East Lothian will see a total of 14,826 properties affected by the Scottish Government’s council tax reform, which includes all residents living in Bands E to F properties.

As an example of the severity of the increases, more than 2,000 residents in the ward of Preston, Seton and Gosford in Band E alone will see a rise in their council tax.

Whilst we experience cuts and rises, the cost of the SNP’s flagship baby box policy has soared fourfold to £27m. Nicola Sturgeon’s pledge to give every new mother a box of baby goods has been branded a “gimmick” by her poverty adviser Naomi Eisenstadt, who said it would do little to address inequality.

In a recent Panelbase poll, more than half of Scots support scrapping the SNP policies of providing free personal care for the elderly and free university education. Perhaps the electorate are beginning to question the affordability of the so-called ‘social contract’ the SNP hold at the heart of their policies as they see their council taxes increase and public services cut?