It’s the new parliamentary term at Holyrood as well and today the troubled  SNP Government unveils its Programme for Government.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said, ahead of the debate this afternoon:

The SNP’s offer is about as inspiring as the ferries they’ve botched and the rail fares they’ve hiked.

Despite having had so many chances to get things right, the SNP have managed to mess it up every single time. They are taking everyone for granted.

People want to see an end to long waits for NHS treatment and a competent plan to fix social care, getting people the care they need and delivering for staff. They want to see our economy growing and ministers finally cleaning up the sewage scandal they have repeatedly chosen to ignore.

All of that should be at the very top of John Swinney’s agenda but, like so many others across Scotland, I won’t be holding my breath.

His comments come after Finance Secretary Shona Robison blamed “Labour austerity” as she announced spending cuts.

Alex had earlier responded to this by reminding us all of how the SNP had wasted so much of its own money.

This SNP Government have gone four times over budget building ferries, sold off Scotland’s prize seabed on the cheap and handed £50m to an engineering firm that went bust. As a result there is less money to go round for public services. They’re promising to spend millions on misguided plans to give ministers more control over care services.

The nationalists have got themselves in a mess because their focus has always been on breaking up the UK, not delivering public services.

This statement needs to contain a commitment to growing the economy and a grovelling apology for the amount of money that has been wasted.