Douglas Fraser's blog: "Labour MSPs should take a duvet day today"

Analysis: With only 47 votes and the tightest spending round since the Scottish Parliament was set up, Finance Secretary John Swinney was in uncharted territory when he set out to secure the 18 extra votes needed to pass the SNP's first Budget.

This was the key test of the party's ability to govern while far short of a majority. The stakes were as high as they get on a £30bn Budget, and, with dramatic flair on Tuesday night, Alex Salmond threatened resignation and an election if the plans were knocked back.

Mr Swinney passed the test yesterday, the First Minister is still in post, and Nationalist MSPs were last night toasting a landmark victory. They were also celebrating a humiliating defeat for their Labour rivals, for this was a test not just of government but of effective opposition. Labour flunked that test.

Wendy Alexander's group had hoped the SNP would seek a broad consensus, but when Mr Swinney went instead for the deal-making necessary to squeak the minimum 65 votes needed to be sure of a majority, Labour had no Plan B. They did not seek alliances with other opposition parties, even on education where there might have been common ground.

Labour now says the deal was done between Mr Swinney and Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee last September, and the Budget has since been "choreographed rather than negotiated". Through the committee process, Labour assumed it was powerless, tabling 20 Budget amendments out of principle, more than expectation. They voted against the Budget at its first parliamentary test two weeks ago.

Then on Tuesday, Labour proposed a late amendment backing skills training, but without money attached. Independent MSP Margo MacDonald called it "motherhood and humble pie" - easy for the SNP to accept, yet once their sole amendment was passed, Labour bizarrely abstained.

The bewildering saga has damaged Ms Alexander and her finance spokesman, Iain Gray, when things already looked grim for the leadership. The blame game was already under way last night.

LibDems also lacked a clear strategy, though at least they backed a university principals' lobby that delivered £10m more and first call on unspent cash.

Conservatives claim concessions on three fronts; more police recruits, reformed drug treatment and acceleration of small business rates relief confirmed yesterday. With 16 votes, they can credibly claim to have achieved what they set out to get, reckoning it tots up to £26m for their priorities next year. While Labour taunts the SNP for "a right-wing alliance" and "doing the Tartan Tory tango", LibDems counter Tories sold out cheaply.

Before Labour and LibDem opposition crumbled in the final vote, the two Green votes and that of Mrs MacDonald were vital. Greens had already won more grant money for environmental sustainability, and yesterday bagged £4m extra for bus subsidies. Under Green grassroots pressure, however, they were unable to back the Budget while it retained £500m for the M74 motorway extension.

As it turned out, their abstention made no difference. Indeed, had Labour signalled two weeks ago that they would abstain, Ms Alexander would have removed the leverage her rivals were able to use on the SNP, denying Tories and Greens their victory claims.

From the politics of Holyrood, the Budget now feeds the public sector, notably the councils who will decide this month if they will freeze council tax, for which Mr Swinney is offering £70m to make up the shortfall.

Squeezed grants to the voluntary sector are already causing local-level pain, and having far fewer constraints on their budgets than before, councils have yet to reach agreement on more than 40 service outcomes that Mr Swinney expects of them.

That is where the focus goes now - along with the challenge to Labour and LibDems, eight months after defeat, still learning how to be an opposition.