COMMENT:
Mr. Armstrong,
In stark contrast to the USA which is heading for LOWER taxes which
you say will invigorate the economy,the SNP Government in Scotland has
announced HIGHER income taxes “to protect public services from the cuts
being imposed by the Tories.”
Clearly the SNP Government is unconcerned that its tax policies make Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK.
Interestingly the SNP approach to taxation confirms three of your views:
1.Politicians keep lowering the definition of “the rich.”Earlier
this year Derek Mackay,SNP Finance Secretary,an apparatchik with no
financial background,described people in Scotland earning £43,000 a year
as “rich.”However in his December Budget ,higher taxes start to take
effect on people earning over £33,000 a year, according to the SNP,
while The Telegraph claims that people in Scotland earning as little as
£26,000 a year will pay more income tax than in the rest of the UK.
2.Faced with a choice of cutting public spending or increasing
taxes politicians will invariably choose the latter.The annual cost to
the Scottish Government of subsidizing free prescriptions is £1
billion.Of course means testing could substantially reduce the cost but
this expenditure is regarded as sacrosanct because it is an SNP flagship
policy.
3.The economic illiteracy of politicians.The SNP Government has
pushed through these tax increases despite the fragile state of the
Scottish economy where retail spending growth over the past eight years
has averaged only 0.5% against a UK average of 2.2%.Scottish economic
growth has also lagged the UK in recent years.It is transparently
obvious to anyone with common sense that these tax increases will have
serious consequences for the Scottish economy.
REPLY:
Yes, the SNP does not get it. They are headed for a major political
disaster. They fail to get what they are doing is not limited to
transferring the wealth from the rich to the poor, but from the people
to government employees. They will pay the price at the next election.
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