Salmond and Sturgeon Want the English Fish for More Fat Subsidies

Shakethedisease

Generali wrote: »

I'm very confused. Is this the Torygraph being a puppet of the Unionist MSM or have the SNP supporters got it wrong again?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon/12196265/Middle-class-Scots-facing-higher-income-tax-than-England.html

Say it ain't so Joe.

Most of the parties in Scotland want tax rises in some form. Labour are campaigning on a 1p rise across the board ( with a rebate for those in lower tax bands ). Supported by the Lib Dems. The SNP have been castigated and harangued by every media outlet going for not going along with this.

It's unlikely that any political party apart from the Conservatives ( obviously ) will be looking to follow Osborne's tax cuts in 2017 when full tax varying powers come to Scotland.

Shakethedisease

wotsthat wrote: »

Yes, it's independence at all costs. That's why the acolytes lie - would you vote for guaranteed uncertainty followed by years (possibly the rest of your life) of being worse off?

The SNP want to take it one step further. They want independence at any costs and want to ensure bridges are fully burnt so there's no chance of ever going back.

The blog post provided by STD yesterday proposed to slash the defence budget by not having one i.e. free loading.

I guess they'll take a similar approach to health and save money by sending people on the bus to Carlisle and Newcastle.

That is very unlikely. The English NHS is on it's knees. Black hole's aren't unique to Scotland it seems.

The NHS in England lacks a convincing plan to plug a £22bn “black hole” in funding within five years, according to parliament’s spending watchdog.
A significant number of acute hospital trusts are in “serious and persistent financial distress”, there is a “spiralling” trend of increased deficits and the current payment system is “not fit for purpose”, the public accounts committee said.

A report published on Tuesday found that reliance on agency staff, sometimes at “rip off” costs, had contributed to the dire situation and NHS trusts were also trying to meet unrealistic savings targets.

The conclusions followed a further examination of a National Audit Office inquiry into NHS finances, which was published in December.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/15/nhs-22bn-funding-black-hole-report-public-accounts-committee

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shakethedisease wrote: »

It's unlikely that any political party apart from the Conservatives ( obviously ) will be looking to follow Osborne's tax cuts in 2017 when full tax varying powers come to Scotland.

The problem is when the 40% rate came into effect decades ago just 1 in 20 workers paid it, now thanks to years and years of deliberate bracket creep via governments failing to raise the threshold as wages rose, it's 1 in 6.

The higher rate of tax was never originally intended to be paid by senior teachers or nurses, junior doctors, and other middle income earners. Osborne is simply rebalancing (and even then only a little bit) away from the decades of bracket creep that have caught up middle earners in a tax originally designed for only the highest earners.

So if Sturgeon now wants to diverge from UK tax policy by failing to follow this rebalancing, it's a pretty hefty tax raise for the middle classes.

CLAPTON

Shakethedisease wrote: »

That is very unlikely. The English NHS is on it's knees. Black hole's aren't unique to Scotland it seems.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/15/nhs-22bn-funding-black-hole-report-public-accounts-committee

do you uncritically agree with all Guardian headlines or are you selective?

Shakethedisease

Generali wrote: »

The alternatives are:

1. It should all be different since [insert date of choice]
2. Scottish folk music is nice, sorry that you are going to die of cancer because we have no money
3. The oil price will be the highest it has ever been forever because that will make Scotland solvent

More likelyhood of no 2 in England at the moment.

The NHS recorded its worst ever performance in the first month of the year as services struggled to cope with unprecedented demand for A&E care, hospital beds and ambulances. Hundreds of thousands of patients were forced to wait longer than they should for time-critical care as the NHS missed almost all its key waiting time targets.


Record numbers of cancer patients were also not seen within NHS-wide time limits, with hospitals breaching two of the eight waiting time targets covering the disease.
Only 81% of people referred by their GP to have a first treatment for cancer within 62 days got it – it should be 85%.
Cancer services also failed to ensure that 93% of patients with suspected breast cancer saw a consultant for the first time within two weeks, managing 92.4%.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/10/nhs-records-worst-ever-performance-in-january

Shakethedisease

CLAPTON wrote: »

do you uncritically agree with all Guardian headlines or are you selective?

No, I can't be bothered finding the reports that the newspapers were all headlining. There are several other newspapers covering the same reports. The Guardian just comes up first, and doesn't crash my browser with about 100 ads while it loads up either.

CLAPTON

Shakethedisease wrote: »

No, I can't be bothered finding the reports that the newspapers were all headlining. There are several other newspapers covering the same reports. The Guardian just comes up first, and doesn't crash my browser with about 100 ads while it loads up either.

if that no, no
or no, yes
or yes

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

The problem is when the 40% rate came into effect decades ago just 1 in 20 workers paid it, now thanks to years and years of deliberate bracket creep via governments failing to raise the threshold as wages rose, it's 1 in 6.

The higher rate of tax was never originally intended to be paid by senior teachers or nurses, junior doctors, and other middle income earners. Osborne is simply rebalancing (and even then only a little bit) away from the decades of bracket creep that have caught up middle earners in a tax originally designed for only the highest earners.

So if Sturgeon now wants to diverge from UK tax policy by failing to follow this rebalancing, it's a pretty hefty tax raise for the middle classes.

I doubt they'll change it. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. The only party that can really make any noise about it will be the Scottish Conservatives anyway. Most of the others are gagging to start taxing even sooner than 2017 across the board right now. Would be laughed out the place for u-turning in 2017 and then advocating tax cuts.

Shakethedisease

CLAPTON wrote: »

if that no, no
or no, yes
or yes

The figures are in the below report.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/statistical-work-areasae-waiting-times-and-activityae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2015-16-monthly-3/

And the 22bn black hole figs come National Audit Office figures from a report published in December. Try looking there if you want to do an in depth analysis. But these sorts of numbers while the economy is supposed to be doing quite well are a bit worrying don't you think ?

Thrugelmir

Shakethedisease wrote: »

And the 22bn black hole figs come National Audit Office figures from a report published in December. Try looking there if you want to do an in depth analysis. But these sorts of numbers while the economy is supposed to be doing quite well are a bit worrying don't you think ?

The "black hole" was far larger a few years back. As long as the direction of travel continues while remaining fairly painless. So be it. Autumn statement may well be tougher.