ED MILIBAND seeks to set the minds of Labour supporters at rest by denying that Alex Salmond will have any input into a Labour government Budget and insisting that "me and Ed Balls" will draft it.

The assertion will dismay as many people as it reasures, especially since Miliband committed himself yesterday to fight against only one form of austerity - "Tory austerity".

He cannot be unaware that Ed Balls never tires of speaking of "tough decisions" that will have to be taken, including "sensible" cuts in public spending.

The only sensible cuts in public spending are those that target white elephant projects such as investment in a successor to the current Trident nuclear weapons programme.

Yet Labour, unlike the SNP, remains committed to the economic madness of throwing away up to £100 billion over four decades on Britain's supposed independent nuclear deterrent.

At the same time, Balls is intent on cutting child and pensioner benefits on the basis of means-testing that is both unjust and wasteful.

Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves goes further, declaring: "we are not the party of people on benefits," insisting that Labour does not wish to be seen as the party to represent those who are out of work.

What does this say about the priorities of an incoming Labour government led by Miliband?

It is understandable that former SNP leader Alex Salmond would exaggerate the significance of his party's role in dictating political priorities in the event of a minority Labour government having to depend largely on his party to achieve and maintain a parliamentary majority at Westminster.

The greater the assessment that Scottish voters have of the capacity of the SNP to nudge Labour to the left, the more likely they are to plump for the nationalists in a number of seats where Labour and SNP are running neck and neck.

However, there is little to be gained from claiming, as Miliband does, that he and Balls alone will draw up a Budget and then "how other parties decide to vote on the basis of a Labour Queen's Speech is up to them."

It would amount to criminal negligence if a minority Labour government were to refuse, at the very least, to engage in informal soundings about possible areas of co-operation with SNP and other anti-Tory representatives.

After five years of coalition government austerity directed against working people, pensioners and claimants, Labour should not have to scrabble around for votes.

It is Labour's failure to pose a clear anti-austerity alternative to the government's anti-people offensive that has weakened its appeal to the electorate.

UKIP's barmy army plan 

ECONOMIC spokesperson Patrick O'Flynn unveiled Ukip's economic priority yesterday by pledging to maintain military spending at a minimum of 2 per cent of national income to make Britain "a credible international country".

Of course, nothing makes a country "credible" so much as a commitment to lash out scarce funds on preparations for war.

O'Flynn says that this expenditure could be "comfortably met" by slashing foreign aid, scrapping the HS2 rail link and reducing public funding for Scotland.

So that means giving up on winning an seats in Scotland, refusing to modernise the economy through faster transport links and turning our backs on the world's poor.

For anyone who supports compassion, co-operation and investment for jobs and development, the Ukip line is the road to nowhere.