There is no doubt the state of public finances across the UK is bleak.

Not since Bram Stoker published Dracula in 1897 has the opening up of books apparently caused so much horror and trepidation.

In Westminster, Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are warning of hard times ahead.

Departments are being asked to find savings. Some taxes – perhaps inheritance and capital gains – may be increased.

Things will get worse, as they say, before they get better.

Remarkably, the situation in Scotland is even more bleak.

Once again, a Scottish Government budget has been ripped up just months after it was approved. Emergency spending controls have been imposed by the least imposing Finance Secretary of the devolution era.

Even Scotland’s much-vaunted social contract – giving benefits to rich people as well as poor people – is under threat. When the SNP embraced Scottish exceptionalism, this is presumably not what it had in........

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