Salmond and Sturgeon Want the English Fish for More Fat Subsidies

Shakethedisease

Generali wrote: »

That's all well and good but the SNP run 7 councils at present and may well end up running more after the next council elections. It may fall to Labour to increase council taxes in Glasgow but it will fall to the SNP to increase them in much of the nation.

Nothing comes into effect until 2017. Same as the Scotland Bill and all the new tax powers. Council elections in 2017 if SNP are elected to control more of them, won't have to deal with the fallout until 2018. It's 9 weeks out from an election and the SNP need a majority to take them through the next five years and any even vaguely possible 2nd referendum.

They were never going to do anything radical at this point in time. So they've simply given Scottish Tories and Labour what they've repeatedly asked for. The end of the council tax freeze, more power to local councils and 100m ringfenced towards education. The other parties have had a very hard time today arguing that this was the wrong thing to do... since they've been all over the newspapers the last few months, and even in Labour's case 'protesting' outside Holyrood, asking for exactly what the SNP have just announced.

Putting forward a brand new top down organisation of local tax raising powers and council tax was never going to happen. The Scottish media fed by Labour would've slayed them. And anyway, Kezia Dugdale wants tax raises and an end to the council tax freeze and more money towards education ( #kidsnotcuts and all that ). So she should have absolutely no problem at all with this.

Fox. Shot.

Generali

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Nothing comes into effect until 2017. Same as the Scotland Bill and all the new tax powers. It's 9 weeks out from an election and the SNP need a majority to take them through the next five years and any even vaguely possible 2nd referendum.

They were never going to do anything radical at this point in time. So they've simply given Scottish Tories and Labour what they've repeatedly asked for. The end of the council tax freeze, more power to local councils and 100m ringfenced towards education. The other parties have had a very hard time today arguing that this was the wrong thing to do... since they've been all over the newspapers the last few months, and even in Labour's case 'protesting' outside Holyrood, asking for exactly what the SNP have just announced.

Putting forward a brand new top down organisation of local tax raising powers and council tax was never going to happen. The Scottish media fed by Labour would've slayed them. And anyway, Kezia Dugdale wants tax raises and an end to the council tax freeze and more money towards education ( #kidsnotcuts and all that ). So she should have absolutely no problem at all with this.

Fox. Shot.

It does rather beg the question as to why the SNP want all these extra powers if it isn't going to use them.

Shakethedisease

Generali wrote: »

It does rather beg the question as to why the SNP want all these extra powers if it isn't going to use them.

I think you're confusing long standing devolved powers and taxes, with those which have only been recently agreed. The last few years devolved Scottish politics have been nothing much else but calling on an end to the council tax freeze and more powers for local councils. Well it's done now and they've got what 'they wanted'.

As for the new income tax/welfare powers. None of the Scottish parties have announced precisely what they'll be doing with those yet. We'll have to wait for their manifesto's. The SNP has been making hints though about what they're going to do shake up welfare system wise. So they do certainly intend using those powers.

In a debate on social security at Holyrood on 1 March, the SNP will set out for the first time in detail how it intends to use the £2.5bn of new welfare powers contained in the Scotland Bill to create a benefits system built on “fairness, dignity and respect”.

As well as the abolition of the bedroom tax and a rise in carer’s allowance to the same rate as jobseeker’s allowance, the party intends to scrap the “84-day rule”, which results in the families of disabled children having benefits stopped once they have had medical treatment for the same condition for longer than 84 days.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scottish-government-to-use-devolved-powers-to-remove-benefits-stigma-and-abolish-bedroom-tax-a6900576.html

Generali

Shakethedisease wrote: »

I think you're confusing long standing devolved powers and taxes, with those which have only been recently agreed. The last few years devolved Scottish politics have been nothing much else but calling on an end to the council tax freeze and more powers for local councils. Well it's done now and they've got what 'they wanted'.

As for the new income tax/welfare powers. None of the Scottish parties have announced precisely what they'll be doing with those yet. We'll have to wait for their manifesto's. The SNP has been making hints though about what they're going to do shake up welfare system wise. So they do certainly intend using those powers.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scottish-government-to-use-devolved-powers-to-remove-benefits-stigma-and-abolish-bedroom-tax-a6900576.html

Do they say what they are not going to do in order to pay for this? If they don't want to increase taxes then they will need to cut spending elsewhere in order to cover the extra cost.

molerat

Rinoa wrote: »

First you increase tax on buying expensive houses, then you charge £500 extra per year to live in them.

Just the start of SNP's plans to tax the better off.

But they are being very clever here by not taxing the core SNP supporter demographic and hoping to increase their share of the vote from that area as they did before the referendum. And I thought Robin Hood was English.

Shakethedisease

Generali wrote: »

Do they say what they are not going to do in order to pay for this? If they don't want to increase taxes then they will need to cut spending elsewhere in order to cover the extra cost.

It's 2.5bn included in the block grant already. It's the powers over them that are changing from Westminster control to Holyrood control ie the bedroom tax. So far they've been able to mitigate it, but not get rid of it. The new powers mean they will be able to abolish it altogether in Scotland.

Thrugelmir

Shakethedisease wrote: »

It's 2.5bn included in the block grant already. It's the powers over them that are changing from Westminster control to Holyrood control ie the bedroom tax. So far they've been able to mitigate it, but not get rid of it. The new powers mean they will be able to abolish it altogether in Scotland.

So simple isn't it to balance the books. Makes you wonder why no one has done this before.

Keep feeding the line out...........

Mistermeaner

In other news kezia what's her name has realised that financial illiteracy (joke intended) is the way to get votes in Scotland (a point well proved I think) so has pledged to outlaw fracking... One of Scotland's few possible sources of independent revenue.

At least Nicola is only pretending to oppose it sort of on the fence not sure what gets me the most votes?

Shakethedisease

Mistermeaner wrote: »

In other news kezia what's her name has realised that financial illiteracy (joke intended) is the way to get votes in Scotland (a point well proved I think) so has pledged to outlaw fracking... One of Scotland's few possible sources of independent revenue.

At least Nicola is only pretending to oppose it sort of on the fence not sure what gets me the most votes?

Sadly for Kezia, fracking isn't devolved much as she'd like to pretend it is. A bit like Trident, where Scottish Labour oppose it, but unfortunately as it's not devolved.. the UK party has the final say in overall reserved party policy ( including fracking and Trident ). The SNP have a big advantage with this sort of stuff in terms of setting out policies. The only way to stop it/stall it was via the devolved planning laws. That's what they did. Anyone's guess where that issue will end up.

Anyway, we're in to desperate flailing 'policy a week' territory from Scottish Labour once again in the lead up to an election. Jim Murphy did the same thing. Iain Gray before him in 2011. Next week they'll be on to another NHS or education 'crisis' no doubt. The Tories are running under the slogan 'a stronger opposition' so they've given up already. And the EU ref is overshadowing absolutely everything coverage wise because it's far more interesting than Kezia's latest fantasy announcement.

elantan

I'm trying to decide who I quite fancy as next labour leader tbh I think Labour are trying to put Sarwar in ... Baillie could be good for a laugh though, she would kill the last vestiges of labour support in Scotland stone dead.