The New Fat Scotland 'Thanks for all the Fish' Thread.

CLAPTON

Shakethedisease wrote: »

The English have no free money to give.

I meant free handout to the scots; not free to the English

LABMAN

CLAPTON wrote: »

I meant free handout to the scots; not free to the English

We are a UK.

LABMAN

CLAPTON wrote: »

I meant free handout to the scots; not free to the English

Why no capital letter for 'the' Scots?...yet English has?

CLAPTON

LABMAN wrote: »

We are a UK.

presumably your point is, that all the people of the uk should get equal and fair shares of the communal pot?

if you read many of my posts you will note a randomised use of capitals without let or favour:

.string.

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Tomkins is standing as a Conservative MSP in May. You do know that don't you ? He's very far from what anyone would call 'independent' in his conclusions. He's been known to change his mind on occasion.

So what?

Would it be better if he supported Labour, or SNP or LibDem?

Would it matter if was a Muslim or a Ranger Football Supporter or a Nudist?

What matters are his credentials in the areas in which he gives his advice.

But then that's the normal approach isn't it? Belittle the messenger and ignore the message.

Do you really believe that to be an expert one has to belong to the SNP? It seems that way.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali

The Laffer Curve is a funny thing. When explained it is completely obvious but when thinking about taxes on a day-to-day basis it isn't.

For the uninitiated, the Laffer Curve is based on a very simple idea. If you set a tax rate of 0% you will raise no tax. If you set an income tax rate of 100% you will raise no money because who the hell is going to work just to give all their money to the Government? Somewhere in between those two tax rates is a rate that raises the maximum amount of money. For other reasons however it isn't necessarily optimal to raise the maximum possible amount of tax.

The UK is clearly somewhere around the Laffer Curve inflexion point as we could see when Labour put up the top rate of tax and revenues fell yet this increase in the average rate of tax is being justified on the basis that it will raise more money!

If the 40% tax band's starting point is going to remain unchanged for 6 years then presumably a lot of extra people are going to be dragged into paying it. If CPI is at 2.5% (middle of the target range) and real wages rise by 2.5% (long term average for the UK) then the tax threshold comes down by about 25%. That's a huge amount.

LABMAN

CLAPTON wrote: »

presumably your point is, that all the people of the uk should get equal and fair shares of the communal pot?

if you read many of my posts you will note a randomised use of capitals without let or favour:

Your peccadillos would be so less important if we were not discussing nations. The problem is you don't see the problem.

CLAPTON

LABMAN wrote: »

Your peccadillos would be so less important if we were not discussing nations. The problem is you don't see the problem.

true, I have no idea what you are talking about

Moby

CLAPTON wrote: »

if you read many of my posts you will note a randomised use of my brain without let or favour:

Fixed it for you.;)