£33bn, spending that directly impacts millions of Scots, a decision from which the shape of the election campaign will no doubt be formed and a deep-seated entrenchment of party positions borne out of 4 years of bad blood that borders on out-and-out hatred. Roll up, roll up, it’s the final big vote and Holyrood Battle Royale before Parliament closes its doors and we get to have our say.
 
Now, there are two comparisons to be made when each of the opposition parties consider John Swinney’s proposed Budget:
 
(1)     Is it more or less better than what I would do?
(2)     Is it better than doing nothing and reverting to last year’s budget?
 
Many of the parties have already decided that the answer to the first question is No. The Greens are steadfastly against the meek ‘passing on’ of Tory cuts without raising revenue to safeguard public services and jobs. Labour believes it would create a budget that is more focused on jobs, regeneration in Glasgow and growth. The Lib Dems seem to be pushing for support for poorer students and a stronger clampdown on high pay in the public sector.
 
All perfectly valid and perfectly reasonable pitches to a watching public but I do worry that each of the three parties above have not fully contemplated the second comparison, the 2011/12 budget reverting to 2010/11 in the absence of any deal.
 
One needs look no further than the bald fact that last year’s budget has £1bn too much in it for it to be applicable to the year ahead. So, from a Green, Labour and Lib Dem perspective, they must all surely conclude that to accept John Swinney’s budget is better than to use the prior year’s. Whether this philosophy can find its way through the fog of parliamentary war and manifest itself in the voting next week remains to be seen.
 
And, well, if Patrick, Iain and Tavish all gamble that public perception will be that it is SNP obstinance that is blocking a Budget deal rather than Opposition intransigence, a damaging deadlock may yet be realised.
 
The Greens are seeking to mark themselves out as different to all four of the main parties in the coming election on not just environmental factors but economic concerns too so perhaps their opposition has a more understandable slant to it, if no less forgivable in the event that no budget actually gets passed at the end of the day.
 
I cannot see Labour doing anything other than voting against anything that the SNP proposes between now and May and so it will be the Lib Dems, I strongly suspect and certainly hope, that will blink, abstain and thus allow the Budget to proceed, as long as the Tesco Tax element is stripped out that is.
 
However, misjudged brinkmanship is something that Scott, Gray and Harvie are well capable of and a flaw that their respective parties have naively already displayed at Budget time during this parliamentary term. There’s not much of a safety net for the coming few weeks and if these opposition leaders focus on the gains that can be made from gambling on everything rather than the losses for us all if no deal is reached, then Parliament’s standing may be about to sink to an all time low.
 
Hold on to your hats, it could be a very bumpy 9 days up to the final vote.