SNP pledges to cap bread and milk prices if it wins Scotland’s parliamentary elections
The SNP will cap supermarket prices for essential goods such as bread and milk if it retains power, John Swinney has pledged, after describing the cost of living as “the defining issue of this election”.With polls pointing to a fifth Holyrood term for the Scottish National party, its leader said he would use devolved public health powers to fix prices on 20 to 50 items such as bread, milk, cheese, eggs, rice and chicken because their rising cost was “impacting our nation’s nutrition”.The eye-catching pledge, made at the launch of the SNP manifesto for the Scottish parliament election, was immediately dismissed as a “potty gimmick” by retailers.It could also put the party on a collision course with the UK government because it may breach the Scotland Act of 1998 that created a devolved parliament.Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said supermarkets already paid significantly higher rates in Scotland, £162m more over the next three years than in England.
He added: “Rather than recreating 1970s-style price controls and potty gimmicks, public policy should get serious and focus on cutting retailers’ costs so that resources can be directed to keeping prices as low as possible for customers.”The Scottish Grocers’ Federation predicted smaller shops could be put at a competitive disadvantage, while questions were also raised about whether discounting would force supermarkets to cut the prices they pay farmers.At the manifesto launch in Glasgow, Swinney highlighted further cost of living measures including a £2 cap on bus fares for any journey in Scotland taken on one service.The party said that would cost £210m by 2032.The Scottish Greens, who pledged universal free bus travel in their manifesto, revealed that the SNP had rejected a similar proposal in budget negotiations last year.
Swinney claimed that an independent Scotland would be able to control energy prices, arguing that cutting them would “be on the ballot” at this election.He was unable to name any specific policies to cut bills but said domestic electricity could be made cheaper by ending the system where the price was linked to the cost of gas used in backup power stations.Many energy experts said that would be very difficult to achieve when gas was still an essential part of the energy market.Labour says the best way to cut home energy bills is to shift as fast as possible to renewables and nuclear power.Speaking to supporters and candidates at an arts venue in Glasgow, Swinney said: “I want to be clear that a vote for the SNP on 7 May is a vote to put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.
”He later added there was a “very realistic” possibility of a second independence referendum in 2028 but did not offer a mechanism for achieving this, given Westminster’s consistent opposition.Swinney pitched himself as the serious candidate in a week dominated by a row between Scottish Labour and Reform over whether they could work together to keep the SNP out of power after May.“At this moment Scotland needs experienced, principled, reliable leadership in the highest office in the land and that is what I offer this country,” Swinney said.He pledged not to increase the number of income tax bands or rates during the next parliament.The Tories and Reform say the system is too punitive.
The manifesto, which the SNP forecast would cost an additional £1.4bn by 2032, also pledged a minimum income for artists, mirroring a scheme proposed by Scottish Labour last week, at an expected cost £30m over two years.Other plans include the building of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 10% of them in rural areas and islands.This would be supported by unlocking an estimated £20bn of investable pension fund assets in Scotland.There are also plans for a national mobile phone ban in all classrooms and for all year 1 pupils to receive a “welcome to school” bag with learning essentials such as a water bottle, books and stationery.
The 72-page document repeated earlier plans for a £100m first homes fund to give up to £10,000 in support for a deposit for first-time buyers, as well as the expansion of subsidised childcare, based on family income.Covering every child from the age of nine months to the end of primary school, it would be available 52 weeks a year.The Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economics thinktank, said the SNP’s pledges were not backed up by a credible plan to pay for them, given that substantial public sector efficiencies had already been planned to pay for existing policies.David Phillips, the IFS expert in devolved government spending, said this lack of precision was a “familiar pattern” in Scottish elections.“More likely in reality, paying for these plans would require further tax rises or deeper cuts to lower-priority spending,” he said.
It will take more than £600m a year to boost UK industrial competitiveness | Nils Pratley
It is “bold action” to boost UK competitiveness, claimed the government. Not everybody shared that assessment of the British industrial competitiveness scheme (Bics), the long-awaited plan to cut electricity bills for UK manufacturers by up to 25% – or, at least, to cut them for a subset of firms that are aligned with the eight chosen sectors of the “modern” industrial strategy.“Gas intensive industries in the UK have been shamefully ignored by the government in this announcement – it’s a total disgrace,” said Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB union, banging the drum for the likes of ceramics-makers and brickmakers that aren’t deemed modern enough for support. Employer bodies mostly did the polite thing of welcoming government assistance of any form before using phrases such as “drop in the ocean”.And, it’s true, £600m a year across 10,000 companies isn’t much
IMF chief Georgieva warns ‘everyone will feel the impact’ of energy price shock, as UK growth beats forecasts – as it happened
Over in Washington DC, the International Monetary Fund is holding a debate on the global economy.IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva says the world economy is facing another, large, shock:double quotation markThe world economy has been, very resilient over the last few years, facing shock after the shock. And this resilience is tested yet again, this time by a shock that is large.Twenty percent of oil and gas is stuck in the Strait of Hormuz, depriving primarily Asia, but also Europe, and other parts of the world of a vital resource. It is global
NAACP lawsuit accuses Elon Musk’s xAI of polluting Black neighborhoods near Memphis
A new lawsuit accuses Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company of illegally spewing toxic pollutants into residential neighborhoods on the border of Tennessee and Mississippi.The suit, filed on Tuesday in Mississippi federal court, alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act due to emissions from its makeshift power plant in Southaven, Mississippi, which powers its datacenter there. The NAACP, represented by the environmental groups Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, says xAI has been polluting areas with homes, schools and churches, including in historically Black communities, by using dozens of methane gas generators without permits.The organization is seeking to force the company to stop operating its unpermitted turbines in Southaven.“A data center should not be a potential death sentence for a community’s health,” Abre’ Conner, the director of environmental and climate justice for the NAACP, said in a statement
Fisa surveillance vote sparks fierce debate as Congress splits on warrantless monitoring
A controversial law that grants the US government sweeping powers for warrantless surveillance is set to expire next week. Replacing it has inspired fierce debate within the White House and Congress, including a scheduled vote cancelled the day of.A coalition of progressive Democrats and far-right Republicans is pushing for reform of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), but they face strong bipartisan opposition from lawmakers advocating for an 18-month renewal with no changes, in line with Donald Trump’s demands. House GOP leaders delayed a procedural vote on a clean extension of Section 702 on Wednesday, after the chamber’s rules committee approved the measure on Tuesday night. Republican leadership was expected to bring the measure to the floor on Wednesday but canceled the scheduled vote, amid dissent from privacy advocates in their own party
LIV and let die: golf rebels count cost of Saudi cutbacks and other sports fear worst | Matt Hughes
Public Investment Fund withdraws support for rebel tour and other sports could be hit too with Newcastle United uncertainThe reverberations of an unscheduled meeting of LIV Golf executives in New York this week have been felt way beyond their swanky offices in Hudson Yards, on the west side of Manhattan.A slowdown in Saudi Arabia’s lavish spending on sport, which is conservatively estimated to have cost the kingdom more than $10bn in the past five years, had been expected, but its Public Investment Fund’s withdrawal of financial support for the rebel tour – which was first mooted to LIV execs on Monday – has caused shockwaves throughout the wider industry.Significantly, the possibility of PIF’s withdrawal was not even addressed in an email sent by the LIV chief executive, Scott O’Neil, to his staff on Wednesday evening, which has left many of them more fearful for their jobs. Such concerns are not limited to golf, with other sports administrators fearful that similar cuts in Saudi’s budget could be coming their way.While LIV was the primary vehicle through which Saudi launched their ambitious attempt to become a leading global sports destination and promoter five years ago, with more than $5bn invested on the rebel tour, the arch disruptors were by no means the sole beneficiaries
Portcullis gets royal breeders dreaming at Newmarket’s ancient first rite of spring
Captain Cook was a few months away from landfall after his first circumnavigation of the earth when the first Craven meeting was held on Newmarket heath in the spring of 1771.It is older than any of the Classics, and old enough too to have the great Potoooooooo – who got his name when a stable lad was unsure how to spell potatoes – on the Craven Stakes’s roll of honour in 1782. For a quarter of a millennium250 years, the first meeting of the year on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket has been Flat racing’s first rite of spring.“It’s what keeps everybody going,” Jason Singh, the marketing director of the famous bloodstock auction house Tattersalls, said here on Thursday, “and I speak as a breeder and racehorse owner myself as well as a sales company employee.“Every year, at this time of year, everybody has got hopes that the next horse they’ve bought is going to be the next superstar, and until it’s not, it could be
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