The Interim Whip

Readers expecting the Sunday Whip may have to wait, as the Official Report from Thursday's meeting of MSPs does not appear to be on the Parliament website, which is odd as it was on there on Friday.

So for now, I'll give you a quick rundown of the Budget vote, most of which you already know:

Marilyn Livingstone (Lab, Kirkcaldy), Robert Brown (LibDem, Glasgow) and Ross Finnie (LibDem Health Spokesman and MSP for West of Scotland) missed the day's proceedings altogether, while Karen Gillon (Lab, Clydesdale) missed the early votes on the six amendments (PDF) to the Budget Bill. Of these, Amendments 5 and 6 were passed unopposed, while 1, 2 and 4 went through by 109 votes to zero with 14 LibDem abstentions. Marlyn Glen (Lab, North East Scotland) failed to register a vote for Amendment 3 so that passed by 109 votes to 0 with 14 LibDem abstentions.

At Decision Time (for which Karen Gillon was present), the Labour amendment to the motion passing the amended Bill (PDF) went through by 110 votes (everyone but the LibDems) to one - Iain Smith (LD, North East Fife) - with 13 abstentions - the rest of the LibDem group. Cathie Craigie (Lab, Cumbernauld & Kilsyth) missed this vote. That's not why she's going to get into trouble though.

So with the Bill amended, and the motion passing the Bill amended, all that was required was the final vote, which passed, as you all know by now, by 64 votes (SNP, Tories, Margo) to one (Cathie Craigie) with 60 abstentions (the rest of the Labour group, the LibDems and Greens).

The rest, as they say, is history, and I'll post everything else once Thursday's report comes back online.