Britannist

The Scottish Conservative Party has announced it is to fight the next election with a policy of cutting taxes in Scotland. It wants the basic rate of income tax cut from 22 pence to 19 pence in the pound. It would cut taxes by a total of 13.6% in Scotland. Couples (both working) would save £1000 a year. The 1998 Scotland Act allows for the Scottish Parliament to “adjust” income tax by up to 3 pence in the Pound upwards or downwards. No party in power in Scotland has yet used this option. The Conservative ‘shadow’ Chancellor at Westminster, George Osborne MP said “the Scottish Conservative policy will give Scotland the opportunity to make itself more competitive than England.”

The growth rate in Scotland is 1.6% - compared to 2.7% for the UK as a whole.

Writing in today’s edition of The Times (27.7.2005) , the columnist Magnus Linklater pointed out:

Heath (in 1968 as Conservative opposition leader) signed the Declaration of Perth, which envisaged devolution and Scotland – in a ‘looser’ UK - embarking on a different course from England. Mr. Linklater commented “For the party (the Conservatives) that once included the word Unionist in its title to signal a policy which, taken to its extreme, would lead to a separate tax structure (a “tartan tax”) and possibly even the break-up of the UK, is not just remarkable itself, it is an indication of how volatile the devolution settlement has become (in 2005).”

The Scottish First Minister, Jack McConnell (Labour/LD coalition) wants a debate on whether the Scottish Parliament can secure powers to legislate on matters still dealt with at Westminster (immigration, broadcasting, firearms, drugs, nuclear arms), Mr. Linklater observed. He also noted “This would be a further lurch in an already fluid devolution settlement.”

Mr. Linklater further stated:

“Scotland is today sustained by a block grant from the Treasury that is scheduled to rise to £26 billion by 2007. This continues to allow a level of public spending that is more than 20% higher per head of population than in England. The historic reasons for this – higher unemployment, an expensive rural transport system and so on – are becoming harder to justify. The argument for continuing it might be stronger if Scotland’s economy were paying its way, but it patently is not. One recent calculation is that, if oil is taken out of the equation, Scotland puts back INTO phpbb_the UK economy less than half it takes from the Treasury.”

Mr. Linklater also declared “The great constitutional shift (devolution - Scottish Parliament) that was meant to galvanise the nation (of Scotland) has been a disappointment. It has delivered neither improvements in public services, nor stimulus to the economy.”

Independence Now!

Do ordinary Scots still want devolution? It seems to be (so far at least) creating more problems than it is solving. :cry: Perhaps, it would be cheaper to scrap the loony-left politicians at Holyrood?

C_steam

That statement, for me, shows how far people are prepared to bend the truth to make a point.