I DON'T really expect to hear much in the way of good news from a Tory budget - and so, to that extent, last week's speech by the Chancellor in the House of Commons didn't provide many surprises.

 

To start with one of the only positives, I did welcome the tax changes announced for the North Sea oil and gas sector.

Despite the low oil price just now, the industry still has a long and bright future ahead of it - but it was vital that the right support was put in place.

So I welcome what was announced - though it's fair to point out that the headline tax cut proposed by George Osborne simply reversed the misguided and damaging tax hike that he imposed on the sector back in 2011.

But, oil and gas aside, there wasn't much to cheer about.

Indeed, what the Budget adds up to is a recipe for even more austerity.

The cuts planned by the Tories over the next few years would - according to independent experts - be deeper than anything we've suffered so far.

And the Tory justification for the cuts - that they are needed to help cut the deficit - doesn't add up either.

The Chancellor has missed his own borrowing targets by a massive £150 billion over the term of this parliament. And that is before we take account of the damage the cuts have done to public services, the social security system and the living standards of ordinary people who are struggling to make ends meet.

Poverty is on the increase - due to welfare cuts - and demand for food banks has rocketed.

The total impact of the Tory/Liberal tax, welfare and public spending changes has hit the poorest 10% in society disproportionately hard - and women have been affected even more badly than men.

So, taking account of all of that, it seems to me that the very last thing we need are even more cuts.

It would be tantamount to piling misery upon misery - and because we know that spending cuts hold back economic growth, that approach wouldn't necessarily help get the deficit down either.

That's why I really hope that last week's budget is not just the last one of this Parliament - but the last budget EVER delivered by George Osborne and this out of touch government.

Of course, there was a time when Labour would have offered a clear alternative to miserable Tory budgets - but, almost incredibly, it seems that those days are over.

As I said earlier, I don't expect much good news from Tory budgets. But just a few weeks before a General Election, I think it would have been reasonable to expect a Labour Shadow Chancellor to set out what he would do differently.

That's why I couldn't believe my ears on Thursday morning when I heard the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, say on radio that there was nothing in George Osborne's budget that he, if given the chance, would choose to reverse. Nothing in the budget of a right Tory Chancellor that Labour would reverse - what on earth has the world come to?

Well, for the avoidance of any doubt, I take a very different view - the austerity at the heart of the Tory plans must be reversed and replaced with a more moderate plan for deficit reduction that will allow essential investment in infrastructure, skills, public services and decent help for the vulnerable.

And that's what SNP MPs will vote for.

And that in a nutshell is why I urge everyone in Scotland - including those who normally vote Labour - to vote SNP this time around.

Ed Balls has made it crystal clear that, left to it's own devices, a Labour government would simply carry on with the same budget policies as the Tories.

I don't believe for a minute that's what folk across Scotland want to see.

They don't just want a change of the colour of government - they want a real change in policies too.

Labour, on its own, can't be trusted to deliver that.

But if Labour needs to rely on the support of SNP MPs to get their policies through, they'll have to think again and start acting like a Labour government should - not just like a pale imitation of the Tories.

A big team of SNP MPs elected on May 7 can make a real difference.

They will make Scotland's voice heard like never before.

They will shake up the Westminster establishment.

And they will help secure policies that put people - not vested interests - first at all times.

That's our pledge.