Mothers' Day isn't normally a time for electioneering, but to use a favourite old feminist phrase, the personal is political. Women are key to the vote on May 5. The Scottish Parliament controls many of the services that they use and value, so who runs it is crucially important. The SNP have delivered family and female friendly policies. There has been help for household budgets in the form of the council tax freeze (raised 60% under Labour), free prescriptions (raised under Labour), free university tuition (fees imposed by Labour), the lowest class sizes in history (unless you live under a Labour controlled council) and 330 new schools (more than Labour built). They also kept healthcare local by reversing Labour's planned closures of A&E, maternity and child cancer units. And they made going to hospital safer by halving the rate of hospital acquired infection with a tougher inspection regime and 1000 more cleaners. Women are also more likely to run the sort of micro-companies that benefit from the small business bonus to cancel or reduce rates (which Labour consistently voted against in the Scottish parliament).

Shirley Anne Somerville spoke for many when she dismissed Iain Gray's gloom and doom Mother's Day message about women being hit harder by the cuts. As one of the ladies at my mum and dad's Golden Wedding said tonight "He's a bit of a moan, that one, isn't he?"

A misleading moan too. Yes women do suffer more - though two thirds of the Westminster cuts were already being planned by Labour. Looking ahead, could Labour do as good a job of protecting Scotland as the SNP? They can copy our policies, but history shows they cannot deliver them (see above). Gray was the only leader to actually be laughed at during last Tuesday's debate when he admitted that the council tax would have risen had his party won in 2007.

But let's look at his big pitch - jobs. And since it's Mothers Day and this is 2011, working mums. Forty per cent of women work in the public sector compared to 22% of men. The cuts in England are certainly threatening the jobs of people in that country. But in Scotland the SNP government has struck a no compulsory redundancies deal with its own workers and urged local authorities to follow that lead. The first council to do so is Borders (an Independent/ Liberal/Tory) coalition. Yet a prominent Labour figure, Jim McCabe, the leader of North Lanarkshire Council and executive on COSLA, told The Herald last month that the no compulsory redundancies deal was unacceptable to councils. If Labour local authorities are so lacking in the will to keep people in employment now, how on earth can we trust the campaign promises?