Squeezed Scots are starting to push back

THE sting in the tail of Nicola Sturgeon’s so-called reboot of her Holyrood agenda is that it is going to be expensive – and so hapless Finance Secretary Derek Mackay will be sent back to the taxpayer to wring yet more from hard-working Scots.

Our poll today – the first since Miss Sturgeon’s belated attempt to return to ‘the day job’ instead of building constitutional castles in the air – shows just how worried hard-pressed Scots are about the prospect of household incomes being squeezed again.

The public are deeply unimpressed with the SNP’s plans – only 13 per cent of Scots think the basic income tax rate should rise and just 44 per cent think the higher 40p rate of tax should rise.

And only one in three thinks that raising the top rate of tax from 45p to 50p would benefit the economy.

Scots workers are already saddled with the highest income tax in the UK, putting businesses here at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting and retaining the sort of bright, well-educated, skilled workers we need to keep our fragile economy afloat.

Increased taxes risk yet more damage to the economy, putting jobs on the line and leaving families with less cash to spend on local business – a potentially catastrophic vicious circle.

The SNP’s soft-touch justice agenda has long put it at odds with the public and its plan to abandon jail sentences of less than a year widens the gap.

Our Survation poll also shows a majority against this further weakening of the justice system’s ability to act as a deterrent to crime.

If the SNP hoped its new approach would help reverse its waning fortunes and distract from the bad news piling up from the NHS, education and transport, this poll underscores just how wrong it is.