Scottish voters are experiencing a new phenomenon: poverty fatigue

Swinney is still promising to abolish child poverty but never will

Photo by Sarah Agnew on Unsplash

The First Minister, John Swinney, will unveil his not-very-hotly-anticipated second Programme for Government tomorrow. He is promising the usual things: economic growth to put “money in people’s pockets”; progress on tackling climate change; slashing NHS waiting lists; and building more affordable housing. And, of course, these problems will remain as intractable as ever after tomorrow.

This is indeed more of an election manifesto than a government programme. The SNP’s eyes are fixed on next year’s Holyrood elections, which is why this Programme for Government is being presented half a year early.

But there is one promise that Swinney made even before he became First Minister, on which the SNP HAS delivered. The Scottish Government promised in 2019 to address poverty by introducing the much-praised Scottish Child Payment. This has been steadily increased over the past five years, and Swinney claims that 100,000 people have been lifted from the scourge of want.

However, this has not silenced the clamour from poverty campaigners and newspapers like The Herald, who remain singularly unimpressed. Why?