The SNP Government and Poverty

Abstract

There is considerable public interest across the UK in whether distinctive economic and social policies will emerge from the Scottish National Party's election victory in 2007. The SNP manifesto did not have very much to say about poverty and inequality, but early in 2008 the new Government published a discussion paper, Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland (TPID), laying the basis for a national policy framework due at the end of 2008. At a time when there are tentative signs of poverty moving up the political agenda across Britain, TPID offers the first indication of how the SNP Government views the problem and what it might do to make a difference.