...or at least it should have. Last night, the SNP minority government was defeated in a budget vote after failing to secure the support of the Scottish Green Party. In a Westminster system, this should mean the immediate resignation of the government, followed by either elections or an opportunity for other parties to put together a government of their own (a likely possibility in the Scottish Parliament). Instead, they're resubmitting their budget next month, and threatening elections only if it does not pass.
I'm not entirely up on the Scottish constitution, but normal practice in Westminster systems is for a budget to be an implicit confidence vote. The Scotland Act 1998 requires the First Minister to resign if defeated in such a vote. It would be odd if the implicit rule had not carried over. OTOH, confidence motions explicitly require the support of 25 MSPs to get on the business programme, and budget votes seem to be about altering spending priorities rather than appropriating and allocating money for a year, so it might not have. Either way, what happens next will be interesting, and could see a mid-term change of government. It will be fun to watch.
