John Swinney stood up in the Scottish Parliament chamber yesterday afternoon to deliver his Budget plans for the coming year amid a backdrop of UK public spending cuts and the modern age of austerity.
Down south, the UK Chancellor reads through the growth forecasts and reveals whether the previous predictions were accurate, and he (it has always been a man) then gets to the matters that decide what affects the cash in the nation's wallets and purses.
If there is a tax cut he saves it until last.
If there is a pensions increase it is greeted with wild cheers.
Savers and borrowers, both are waiting eagerly to hear what his plans mean for their future investments.
The increase, cut or freeze on duty on petrol, fags and booze determines whether it's seen as a populist Budget – and everyone wants to know at least one decision he made.
In short, Budget Day at Westminster is a national event, covered in detail in the media like the Grand National.
At Holyrood it is a rather more sedate affair.
With little control over how we spend the pound in our pockets, and left to distribute the cash given to him from Westminster, it's a hard job getting the public overly excited or anxious about a statement from the Finance Secretary.
And when the Presiding Officer tells the back benchers to stay quiet until it's over, compared to Westminster it has the feel of someone reading out the accounts at the bowling club AGM.
IT IS however of vital importance and outlines how much is to be spent on the NHS, on capital building projects, on police and the courts and on efforts to get people back into work.
The Council Tax freeze, which has been a fixture in recent years, is one area where household budgets are a consideration, but the rest is big picture number crunching, an exercise in trying to squeeze more from the pocket money.
Holyrood, on the whole, is a much less boorish chamber than Westminster.
Individual MSPs who get too loud can be, and are, identified by the Presiding Officer, whose ticking off usually suffices.
Thankfully we don't hear toffs cheering welfare cuts or witness tribalism more at home in football stadiums.
But sometimes on the big occasions a little bit of political theatre wouldn't be a bad thing.
