FINANCE Secretary John Swinney recently delivered the Scottish Government's proposed budget for 2011-12.
It aims to preserve public sector jobs - and does so by seeking a pay freeze for those in the public sector earning more than £21,000.
If public sector pay were to increase as some Labour and workforce representative voices have argued, then it would be necessary to make some public sector workers redundant. We simply do not believe that would be fair.
In addition, Scotland's councils have been offered a good deal.
They will get sufficient money to be able to maintain the all-time record number of police numbers, and to continue the SNP Government's freeze of the Council Tax - in stark contrast to Labour's Iain Gray, who wants to increase Council Tax as part of the "basket of taxes" his party has threatened.
Again the idea here is a social contract: whilst pay will not go up - except for the lowest paid - neither will the Council Tax, which is a huge boost for senior citizens and those on fixed incomes.
Those in Badenoch and Strathspey will have to pay the high fuel prices, and the three tax rises on fuel which the Con Dem Westminster Government is introducing, two to excise duty and the VAT rise in January.
These will hit those in rural Scotland hardest - contrary to what the Lib Dems promised us for years before they decided to join up with the Conservatives. The Scottish Government do not wish to add to that pain.
NHS spending in Scotland has also been protected by the SNP's budget - whilst a number of steps have been taken on "top people's pay".
These include a further freeze of the pay of Ministers and MSPs - such as myself - and rightly so!
But they also include a 10% cut in the pay of new quango bosses - and an end to the offering of bonuses paid to them, as well as a 10% cut in senior civil service costs next year and a 25% cut within five years.
The NHS distinction awards have been cut in Scotland - as opposed to down south, where the Con Dem Government has left them intact. These see some consultants getting up to £70,000 a year on top of salaries in excess of £100,000.
So, whilst we cannot break contracts entered into by the Labour Liberal coalition in Scotland in the years before we took office, we have acted within the law to tackle the basic unfairness of the huge pay and bonuses handed out to the top people in the public sector.
But those on pay of up to £21,000 can still expect a boost and will receive an increase of at least £250.
The total money Scotland receives is fixed by Westminster. Even with some £100 million being transferred from revenue to capital, there are still very, very difficult decisions that have had to be made and which we have not sought.
Any politician locally or nationally who argues that what we are doing is wrong must, to have any credibility, also say how or from whom we should find the money to fund the projects they back.
If they don't, then they are indulging in a cynical ploy - and should not be taken seriously.
For example, Labour have promised to go ahead with the Glasgow Airport Rail Link project, which would cost well over £200 million. Where do they get the money for that from?
We saw, over the past decade, the Labour Liberal Coalition press ahead with pet Central Belt projects such as the trams in Edinburgh - a project which the SNP sought to scrap but Labour and Liberals, acting with the Greens and the Tories, forced to proceed by voting it through at Holyrood.
That project is now costing half a billion pounds, and rising.
What I believe John Swinney has shown is that he is a Finance Secretary who is taking the tough decisions but the right ones. The opposition parties need to show whether they have any serious proposals to offer - or just empty political rhetoric.
What we really need in Scotland is responsibility for taking decisions for ourselves over all the things that affect us - such as whether we wage war and whether we should pay billions for nuclear weapons we do not need - as well as being responsible for our own finances so we are no longer faced with savage Westminster cuts.
Scotland needs to take charge of its own affairs with financial responsibility and independence.
