Various adjectives were deployed to describe the SNP government's tax and spending plans as more than 100 business representatives gathered in Edinburgh on the morning after the Scottish Budget.
“Very honest” was the initial assessment of the Budget offered by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who joined an expert panel at the Business Breakfast event, hosted by Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) and True North Advisors, in partnership with Brodies.
Within a few minutes, however, Ms Forbes had admitted another charge could be levelled at her government in the wake of the financial statement outlined at Holyrood on Tuesday.
“Boring”, she accepted, was the verdict many would have reached in relation to the SNP’s 19th Budget since gaining power in 2007.
“I actually think in a time of huge uncertainty, business sometimes quite likes boring. Because boring is consistent and expected,” said Ms Forbes, who could have been channeling Radiohead as she repeatedly emphasised the benefits of having “no surprises”.
In some ways, the lack of surprises was the most surprising thing about the Budget, given its proximity to the Scottish Parliament election on May 7.
The decision to resist the temptation to pull any bunnies from bonnets may have been influenced by ongoing financial constraints, but it was also entirely in keeping with the safety-first approach of the administration led by John Swinney and Ms Forbes since they were brought in to steady the ship in 2024 following Humza Yousaf’s brief tenure.
With the SNP ahead in the polls, the First Minister and his Deputy were clearly determined to avoid the risk of any Budget measure backfiring.
But will this “boring” Budget really benefit Scotland’s businesses, as Ms Forbes suggested?
True North's Managing Partner Geoff Aberdein, who chaired the panel discussion on Wednesday, pointed out that “surprises” were not the only thing notably absent from the 4,374-word speech delivered on Tuesday by Shona Robison.
Challenging Ms Forbes, he said: “I did a quick search of the Finance Secretary’s statement to parliament yesterday and not in one location do the words ‘economic growth’ appear. Are you serious about economic growth?”
David Phillips, head of devolved and local government finance at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), agreed with Ms Forbes that the lack of "skeletons in the closet", by way of surprises and unfunded pledges, could pave the way for economic growth, as would the focus on capital investment for infrastructure.
"Small beer", was how the pre-election giveaways were described by Mr Phillips, who also chastised the Scottish Government for being a "little bit naughtier" than other administrations in the way they present elements of the Budget, such as a “less than fully transparent” apparent uplift in local government funding.
He added: “It could have done rather more and it chose not to. I think that’s a good thing because if it had gone further, for example, and made big cuts to tax or big increases in spending, that could have stored up problems for the next government. I think it’s better for the next government to make those bold decisions rather than have them foisted upon themselves.”
Bob Langridge, a corporate tax lawyer and partner at Brodies, questioned the headline changes to thresholds for the basic and intermediate income tax rates outlined in the Budget, which the Scottish Government said would mean 55% of Scottish taxpayers would pay less income tax than people living in the rest of the UK.
“But your own figures show the difference for someone on a median salary in the next financial year is going to be £24,” he said.
“That kind of policy, and I completely agree with the objective there, but £24 a year kind of feels like the policy is made so you can say you’ve made it. It doesn’t really have much of a material impact on people’s lives.”
In other words, whatever way you want to describe the Budget, it seems little will change directly as a result of the measures outlined on Tuesday.
Any longer term economic and political consequences – or, indeed, surprises - remain to be seen.