The federal budget for 2013 and the planning period 2014-2015 has already been given the label ‘anti-social': the rising volume of budget allocations to the ‘guns' brings down that of allocations to ‘butter' – including ‘educational butter.'

The Scottish Government's Budget for 2024-25 takes place at a time of particular uncertainty about the future funding environment. UK government spending plans both for the coming year and for later years seem likely to be topped up, but when and by how much is unclear. The current UK government...