ON Thursday Derek Mackay unveiled the second Scottish budget since partial powers over income tax were transferred to Holyrood. The Finance Secretary delivered tax cuts for the bottom 70 per cent of earners and, through some effective targeting of revised bands and rates, raise enough money to provide real terms increases in public spending.

Westminster cuts of £200m to Scotland’s day to day expenditure budget were mitigated and a huge boost was given to Scotland’s growth potential through a £350m fund for the Scottish National Investment Bank, one of a range of measures to boost business growth. Not a bad day's work.

The budget has been well received. And so it should be. But the reaction of the opposition parties has been instructive. Fair to say both Labour and the Tories were caught on the hop by Mackay's nifty footwork.

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The Tories have been earning themselves a bit of a reputation for economic illiteracy recently. Tory MSPs have made 70 separate demands for more spending this year, on everything from air quality monitors to zebra crossings. An A to Z Tory wish list. Their very own letter to Santa. But with not a thought as to how to pay for it.

But that’s only one part of the Tory triple whammy, they also want tax cuts for the top 10 per cent and for us to forget about the real terms cuts their friends in Westminster are inflicting on Scotland’s day to day spending budget.

The Tories want to have their cake, and to eat it, and they don’t even want to pay for it. Tory economics just don’t add up.

On Thursday the Tories were on standby to shout down the budget for taxing too much. So when the reality sunk in, that 70 per cent of Scottish taxpayers would be paying less tax next year than this, and that fully 55 per cent of Scottish taxpayers will be paying less tax than they do in the rest of the UK — making Scotland the lowest taxed part of the UK — the Tories were struggling to get traction. Their message as messed up as their economics.

Labour had it even worse. All geared up to rant about cuts Richard Leonard struggled to find anything coherent to say when it became clear that Scotland’s public services were to benefit from increases in spending. In the case of NHS Scotland to the tune of £400m. Not only that but with the public sector pay cap being lifted in Scotland — unlike in Labour controlled Wales — Labour was left frantically searching for something sensible to say. Labour’s own tax plans are a combination of measures that would actually cost money — not clever — and calls to increase basic rate taxes by one per cent for low earners — the opposite of progressive. Richard Leonard has a lot of work to do to get the wheels back onto the Labour bus.

There’s more work to be done to get the budget finalised, including some interesting negotiations with the smaller parties, but what was unveiled on Thursday is a package of measures that will be good for Scotland’s public services, our economy and for the vast majority of our taxpayers.