Budget set to be fast tracked

Many of us will be giving a sigh of relief after hearing the news that the second budget now looks all but certain to be passed by parliament. It's great to see all the parties, except Labour, working together to produce an even better budget. But, Labour now just seems adamant to keep refusing even the possibility of contemplating supporting the budget! And why is this? Well, my guess is as good as yours, but one possible reason is that the budget includes policies which have been proposed by other parties, so won't support it just for that reason, even if they originally supported that particular policy anyway! Well, whatever the reason one thing is for certain, Scottish Labour is the loser and the voters are definitely not liking them for this. A poll conducted by the Sunday Times showed that not only does the SNP have huge support over the budget – with all the other parties on negative ratings – but that the SNP would extend its Scottish Parliament lead over Labour to six points, compared to 1 point in the May 2007 election. In terms of who is the best person to make the right decisions in tough economic times, both Alex Salmond & Gordon Brown were at 33%. And what about who would make best First Minister, well that's an obvious one! Salmond was at 35% and Iain Gray was at 15%.

So, with the SNP government at such a strong position, it's hardly surprising that the opposition don't want an election. The budget will be passed tomorrow, so don't expect too many big surprises.