Swinney Puts 'Reform' at Heart of Programme for Government
John Swinney presents his programme for government at Holyrood today, with significant public-service reform expected at its core — against a backdrop of front pages reporting health boards facing cuts, business demands to scrap his food price cap, and his own ruling-out of any deal with Reform UK. It is the agenda-setting moment before Scotland’s political year turns towards the 2027 election — and towards the independence bill Westminster has already refused.
Mr Swinney’s challenge today is the one that stalks every long-governing party: making “reform” sound like renewal rather than repair of one’s own record, with the NHS — nineteen years under SNP stewardship — as the hardest case. The food-cap decision is the programme’s test of nerve after twenty-three business bodies called it a gimmick: retreat reads as weakness, persistence invites Hungary comparisons. And beneath the policy sits the strategy visible in Friday’s referendum bill: govern competently, accumulate grievance as Westminster says no, and make 2027 a mandate election. Watch the cap’s fate, the health-board line — and how much independence rhetoric the programme carries versus how much it saves for the campaign.