The Scotsman Sees Sense

The Scotsman’s endorsement of the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives is so thoroughly, even startlingly, sensible it could almost have been written by me*.

[T]here is no other credible candidate for First Minister beyond Mr Salmond. Despite his party’s apparently staunch commitment to statism, we also know the SNP leader is passionate about the role of business and free enterprise in generating jobs and growth for Scotland, within or outwith the Union. In that, he and many of his colleagues – finance secretary John Swinney is one – share the beliefs of the Tories, and we feel there may be common ground between them.

SCOTLAND needs a strong First Minister and a strong government, and only the SNP under Mr Salmond has the potential to provide that.

However, what the SNP and its leader also need is a partner to push them towards a more realistic view of the challenges ahead in terms of public spending; towards an acceptance that every public service in Scotland cannot be free and that the language of politics must include setting priorities; towards a greater pragmatism when it comes to using the private or voluntary sectors, as well as the public, to provide services; towards a realisation that most Scottish voters may not want independence but may be happy with greater fiscal responsibility for Holyrood.

Mr Salmond has not been the only leader who has not faced up to the consequences of the biggest UK deficit and debt in our peacetime history and the constraints they, of necessity, impose. Scotland has to bear a share of deficit reduction, just as we enjoyed the real-terms doubling of public spending in the glory years – we can’t possess one and disown the other.

Only one party can push the SNP towards a greater realism: the Scottish Conservatives. During this election, we have been regularly monitoring the views of our readers through our YouGov polling. We know Nationalist and Tory supporters among our readers together command a majority. With that in mind, we feel Mr Salmond, in association with Miss Goldie, with whom he has a personal rapport, would be the best team to take Scotland forward in the next half-decade.

A formal coalition would be preferable, as it provides stability in government, though it would be difficult for the SNP, still wedded to a policy of not going into government with the Tories. However, if he does triumph tomorrow, might such a revolutionary change be Mr Salmond’s “Clause 4 moment”? If a coalition is not possible, a “confidence and supply” arrangement, in which the Tories exert their much-vaunted common-sense approach, is the best option available. Miss Goldie might not get Mr Salmond by the short and curlies, as she once memorably put it, but a regular handshake between the two is what Scotland needs.

Bang on.