STEPHEN DAISLEY: Politicians are good at one thing - spending cash. But as EU fiasco shows, the SNP can't even do THAT properly

From wherever in Scotland you are reading this, I’d like to enlist you in a small experiment. Think about where you live, be it a bustling city, an overflowing commuter town, or a sleepy little village.

Picture the high street or the village square, the community centre or the industrial estate, a favourite park or a cherished heritage site.

Are any of these places doing so well that they would knock back the offer of additional investment? I can’t think of anywhere in my area that would, and I suspect you can’t either.

A little pot of money here or there could transform our surroundings and make our lives measurably better.

That is what European structural funds are meant to do. They make cash available to support small businesses, pay for youth training, build much-needed infrastructure and help us to get a bit greener.

Even though the UK is no longer a member state of the European Union, we still benefit from this financial boon because of the rule under which Brussels allows three years for structural funds to be spent.

So allocations from the 2014-2020 funding tranche, the final one the UK will have access to, could still be spent up until December of last year.

Could be spent, but, in Scotland, wasn’t. At least, not fully. As the independent Scottish Parliament Information Centre confirms, Scotland was allocated €941million (£800million) in 2014, with half coming from the European Social Fund and half from the European Regional Development Fund.

All the Scottish Government had to do in return was distribute the money, usually to local authorities or quangos who would spend it on approved projects, then provide certified statements of expenditure to the European Commission. Spend the money and hand over the receipts. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

But it’s the SNP. They couldn’t walk in a straight line if you painted a guide in the road for them.

That €941million allocation has been revised down to €783.4million (£666million) because Scottish ministers failed to meet spending targets within the necessary timeframe. As a result, Scotland has missed out on €157.6million (£134million). There is also an outstanding €280.4million (£238million) which ministers hope to claim for later this year or early next year.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told Holyrood last week: ‘It is being spent. We have until 2025 in which to continue to spend it. It is being spent currently, it will continue to be spent and there has been no point at which it has not been being spent.

‘We will continue to maximise the funding that is available.’

That will be cold comfort to people whose communities are crying out for resources. For the SNP government to sit on a mountain of cash during times of real need will strike them as perverse. If there’s one thing politicians are good at it’s spending money, but the Nationalists can’t even do that properly.

This underspend might be forgivable if the SNP was new to government and still getting to grips with the machinery of the state. But it has been in power since 2007. There is simply no excuse for such a wanton dereliction of duty.

The SNP believes in a union of nations across the continent – just not one closer to home – and used to cite EU structural funds as a benefit of pooling and sharing resources with other European countries.

As ever, though, the SNP was too busy preaching to get round to practising. While loudly declaiming against Brexit for having deprived Scotland of the financial benefits of EU membership, it was depriving us of those very benefits.

Not only that, but how many times have we heard SNP ministers plead poverty and demand yet more money from the Treasury to top up Scottish government coffers? Their begging bowl is overflowing but it’s never enough.

And their failure to invest European funds should serve as a cautionary tale to devolutionists who say Holyrood must have proper borrowing powers.

Anyone who surveys SNP ministers’ handling of structural funding and concludes they need more financial responsibility might as well pile up taxpayers’ cash on Calton Hill and start a bonfire.

However, this is not a story of mere incompetence, but one of profound cynicism. The Nationalists lambast the UK Government for its austerity policies and accuse it of failing to do enough for the worst off, yet their government chose not to pass on to Scotland’s most deprived communities funding that could have made a meaningful difference.

Money that might have got more young people into training or an apprenticeship and on their way to a stable, well-paying job, or that could have helped insulate social rented homes at a time when energy bills are crippling family finances.

This is not some fiscal abstraction: it’s real people with real needs who missed out because the Scottish government didn’t do its job.

This is the latest breach of trust between Scots and the party that claims to represent them. I have frankly lost count of how many such breaches we have seen lately. The SNP seems incapable of doing anything right. Everything it touches turns to scandal.

This is where Forbes ought to come in. In appointing her as deputy first minister, John Swinney signalled that his government would cut a different path to the one that preceded it.

But the public have to see the government getting its act together before they can believe it.

Forbes should put economic competence at the heart of the government and work to gain the public’s trust by making sure there is no repeat of the structural funds debacle.

Scots must have confidence in their government’s ability to manage money. It is among the most basic duties of ministerial office. If you can’t get that right, you have no business demanding the full powers of independence.

On July 4, voters will be asked to reflect on the performance of the UK Government and express a judgment, but many will also have in mind the SNP’s chaotic stewardship of the Scottish government and wish to articulate their frustration over 17 years of ineptitude, distraction and brass neck. They are fed up with incompetence and missed opportunities.

The failure to spend structural funds fully and to the maximum benefit of ordinary Scots is another betrayal, another indication that this government is simply not up to the job.

SNP ministers should not be surprised if voters take July 4 as an opportunity to send them a message: get your house in order or you will be sent packing in 2026.

I suspect the time for a course correction has long since passed and the SNP is at the mercy of the political weather. That apocalyptic wave washing over the Tories right now? It’s heading your way next.