What Scotland badly needed was a budget focused on jobs and growing the economy. Instead what Scotland got was a budget focused on a referendum, wrapped in independence, boxed in nationalism.

Today, in Alex Salmond's Scotland, one in every four young people is unemployed. Now, I try not to read too many Scottish Government press releases but the one which set out the number of unemployed young people would surely have brought home, even to the SNP, the desperate need to wake up and do something. Because, behind that statistic, real people are facing real hardship.

But still the SNP don't get it. Still they remain focused on the referendum, not on creating jobs.

And they have failed no part of the country greater than they have failed Glasgow.

The city's economy is important not just for the tens of thousands of Glaswegians who work here but also for the tens of thousands of people who travel into the city every day for work. A successful Glasgow underpins a successful Scotland.

Glasgow's economy relies heavily on its connectivity with other parts of the country. The ability to travel, to meet people, to do business in other parts of Scotland and the UK is crucial to its current and future success. Indeed, only this week Alex Salmond himself said that Scotland is facing a 'crisis of connectivity'.

Perhaps he would like to explain then, next time he comes to Glasgow, why the Scottish Government fails to recognise the importance of Glasgow Airport to the region's success and reinstate the airport rail link.

Perhaps he would also like to explain how cutting back on plans to increase the number of trains between Scotland's two biggest cities will help the economy.

Not only was the Edinburgh to Glasgow rail improvement programme 'shovel ready', the shovels were already in the ground.

There is a Scottish Government Minister who has responsibility for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, whose sole job is meant to be using publicly-funded building projects to boost the economy.

Unfortunately, Alex Salmond also gave that person– Nicola Sturgeon – the job of running the referendum. We now know that when he says he will focus on construction, what he really means is he will spend the next two years building the case for independence.

Just last week the SNP had the opportunity to make the case for Scotland when debates were held on infrastructure investment and the Glasgow to London train service. Sadly, disappointingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, not one SNP MP even bothered to turn up at either of the debates.

It's time the SNP stopped preaching and actually started delivering, not just their own priorities but reflecting the country's.