Last First Minister's Questions of 2015

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was at 10 Downing Street to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron

She was not, you understand, apportioning blame. Such would not be appropriate at this juncture, the Season of Goodwill.

However, Nicola Sturgeon was certain about one thing. She had been free from the dreaded lurgi on entering Downing Street for a meeting with David Cameron.

And afterwards? She was instantly stricken with the cold, reducing her customarily robust timbre to a throaty rasp.

Voicing sympathy, Ruth Davidson (Team Dave, Scottish Chapter) said she would gently suggest to the PM that he might forego the mistletoe in future. Let us pause for a moment to consider that image.

OK, pause over. To the substance. Or "the nub of the matter", as Kezia Dugdale put it. She used that phrase when invited to give a Yes or No answer to a query from the FM as to whether she favoured increasing the standard rate of income tax in Scotland to fund education.

As the Labour leader deployed said phrase, both Ms Sturgeon and John Swinney could be heard yelling "Yeah. Yeah". No, they were not forming a Beatles tribute band. They were suggesting that Ms Dugdale might usefully add to the nub by providing a reply.

(And, actually, when I say yelling, Ms Sturgeon's "yeah" was more of a strangulated cough, like a rare species of bat calling out wistfully to her estranged chums. )

Still, back to the nub. Did Ms Dugdale answer Yes to the inquiry? Or indeed No? Friends, she did not. Rather, she chided the Scottish government for failing to think ahead, for failing to generate budget plans for more than the coming year.

It was, in short, a rather effective debating stratagem by the FM. To be fair, it was only so because of the rather curious fiscal interregnum which persists in Scotland at the moment.

What is the deal on tax?

Since 1999, the Scottish Parliament has had the "Tartan Tax" at its disposal, the power to vary the standard rate of income tax by +/- three pence in the pound. It has never been used, despite the SNP's early eagerness to spend a Penny for Scotland. (Mr Swinney's youthful enthusiasm has dissipated.)

From next April, the SP will be in charge of 10p worth of income tax at both the standard and upper rates. Mr Swinney has declined to alter income tax on the grounds that he cannot discriminate between standard and upper: it is all rates or none.

That and the equally powerful reason that he does not want to upset voters just before the May elections. (Mr Swinney probably suspects that when people say they are willing to see higher taxation, they secretly mean for their neighbours, not themselves.)

Ms Sturgeon's commitment to ending austerity was, Kezia Dugdale suggested, shallow

But the new Scotland Bill, courtesy of the Smith Commission, will eventually give the SP control of all tax rates and bands for earned income. Eventually. Not now. Not, as Ms Sturgeon repeatedly noted, "for this draft budget", presently before MSPs.

Hence her challenge to Ms Dugdale. What would you do about tax now, at the moment, for this budget? Hence Ms Dugdale's momentary discomfiture. (Politicians seldom like to give a Yes or No answer.)

To be fair (that's twice, a record equalling tally), Ms Dugdale recovered swiftly. Ms Sturgeon's commitment to ending austerity was, she suggested, shallow. They were governing one year at a time rather than planning for the future.

Labour plans to give £1,000 to head teachers for every pupil from a deprived background in their schools. They would raise the cash by increasing the top rate of tax to 50p. In the future, when the new powers kick in. But they want a commitment made now.

More broadly, the SNP questions the sums to be raised, suggests that Labour has promised the cash to other projects (that is disputed) and challenges the strategy. But, on the day, Ms Sturgeon confined herself to her precise tax challenge.

Spirit of Christmas

Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats also piled in on education. He accused the First Minister of "butchering" the schools budget.

Ms Sturgeon gave him a withering glare. (She can still glare rather effectively: it is only the vocal chords which are struggling.) She reminded him that the Lib Dems had kept George Osborne at Number 11 "for five long years", resulting in spending cuts. And she repeated her earlier challenge re income tax.

Ruth Davidson pursued a different tack. She recalled that the SNP had argued during the referendum that the NHS would only be truly safe with independence. Yet now the SG had contrived to find an extra £400m for health.

Ms Davidson said the same applied to childcare and fisheries. Scotland's infants were to benefit from extra cash. Scotland's fleet would benefit from new catching quotas. "All good news", she noted, and all under the Union.

You can see the snag with this argument, can't you? Nicola Sturgeon certainly could. Her voice vanishing, she summoned her remaining strength and "in the spirit of Christmas" thanked Ms Davidson for "the vote of confidence" in her administration.

Have a fine Yule and a guid New Year when it comes.