poll to be done on council tax: Scotland's council tax to be frozen but england

to pay for it!!

in yesterday's paper it says council tax in Scotland will be frozen until 2012 and England would be paying for this. I wonder what other people's thoughts are on this as i find it 1) outrageous that it is increasing again in England 2) there is one law for England and one for Scotland. is it not time that people started to complain about this. also my local council are not very efficient and i have already mentioend ways to save money but dont listen. thanks in advance.

Comments

  • This come up distressingly often. There are loads of "one law for X and another for Y". That's because we live in a United Kingdom where because the central government was afraid that Scotland would break away, and that to a lesser extent, the other "non-English" parts might want to do so as well, devolution of various types was introduced. That means that different parts of the UK can look at their own priorities and decide what to do "locally". The council tax issue is not a "law" - it is a policy/resource allocation choice by the Scottish Government.

    I live in Scotland, so the constitutional positions of Wales and Northern Ireland are a matter for others. I am now talking about Scotland.

    The simple fact is that the way things are presently set up, Scotland receives a block grant from Westminster to spend on a wide range of "devolved" matters. It is entirely up to the Scottish Parliament to decide how to spend that money. The present minority SNP Government has decided to use large sums of that money to provide more money to local government so that they don't have to increase the Council Tax:T . That same money can't be spent on other service area like the NHS, or further education:mad: . It is called choice. If you want the same in England, then convince one of the major political parties to put a similar policy in in their manifesto and then vote for that party. It is that simple.

    As for the "and England will be paying for it" This is largely typical of the English media. The block grant is paid out of UK taxation, to which all contribute. If you want to get to the stage where every LOCALITY gets back what it pays in, you are one step away from every PERSON getting back what they pay in. In national taxation, that viewpoint leads to maness:eek: .

    Hope this helps :beer: .

    Wild Rover, from Edinburgh
  • Deals_2
    Deals_2 Posts: 2,410 Forumite
    response from yourself . well done!! is education in Scotland worse than in England though..? or the national health service?
    Wild_Rover wrote: »
    This come up distressingly often. There are loads of "one law for X and another for Y". That's because we live in a United Kingdom where because the central government was afraid that Scotland would break away, and that to a lesser extent, the other "non-English" parts might want to do so as well, devolution of various types was introduced. That means that different parts of the UK can look at their own priorities and decide what to do "locally". The council tax issue is not a "law" - it is a policy/resource allocation choice by the Scottish Government.

    I live in Scotland, so the constitutional positions of Wales and Northern Ireland are a matter for others. I am now talking about Scotland.

    The simple fact is that the way things are presently set up, Scotland receives a block grant from Westminster to spend on a wide range of "devolved" matters. It is entirely up to the Scottish Parliament to decide how to spend that money. The present minority SNP Government has decided to use large sums of that money to provide more money to local government so that they don't have to increase the Council Tax:T . That same money can't be spent on other service area like the NHS, or further education:mad: . It is called choice. If you want the same in England, then convince one of the major political parties to put a similar policy in in their manifesto and then vote for that party. It is that simple.

    As for the "and England will be paying for it" This is largely typical of the English media. The block grant is paid out of UK taxation, to which all contribute. If you want to get to the stage where every LOCALITY gets back what it pays in, you are one step away from every PERSON getting back what they pay in. In national taxation, that viewpoint leads to maness:eek: .

    Hope this helps :beer: .

    Wild Rover, from Edinburgh
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