Craig Hoy: “This is a deeply worrying sign for hard-pressed Scots, who are already being clobbered by sky-high SNP taxes.”

John Swinney and his ministerial colleagues need to accept their approach is going to mean more pain for Scots in the coming years, through more tax rises or spending cuts or both.

Their economic approach has the country stuck in a dangerous doom loop of ever-increasing taxes and low growth, which is resulting in far less tax revenue being collected than expected.

Scots will be concerned that dozens of taxpayer-funded devices have been lost or stolen in such a short space of time.

John Swinney was clearly ignoring the warnings from business leaders and economists that continually hiking taxes kills growth.