An enlightening Scottish budget

Having scoured your paper for details of Scotland`s budget this week, I resorted to the "search" button on your website, which only directed me to articles on BBC News! I would have thought that this budget, especially after the non-event which was the Tories` Autumn Statement, and the tax changes introduced by the Finance Secretary for Scotland, Derek Mackay, would have been of interest to many readers. Nicola Sturgeon, apparently, is contemplating "fielding candidates south of the border", but the budget`s failure to tax Scotland`s rich simply supports David Torrance`s argument (English voters, don`t be fooled by the SNP - its rhetoric hides its nationalism,14/12/16). If moderate Labourites are won over by a party supporting Tory-lite economic policies, with "George Osborne-like arguments against restoring the 50p rate of income tax", and no hint of wealth redistribution, they are probably in the wrong party anyway.

      Even so, I would have thought the Guardian would have been keen to illustrate how the SNP is driven, not "by ideology, but the pursuit of independence", and how the more power it has, the "more conservative the Scottish government seems to become".