£1bn boost, but SNP still begs for more!
IS THERE no end to SNP ministers’ money grab? Never content with the extra cash they receive from the Barnett consequentials because of the UK’s improving economy, they demand more from the British Government and are on course to hammer Scottish taxpayers who already pay more than they should. Whatever they raise, this is never what they predict. Whatever they receive from London it’s never enough. As a nation the SNP has turned us into a hard up, hard luck, hard done-by country. If he could get away with it, Finance Secretary Derek Mackay would be sitting on the street waving an empty coffee cup looking for spare change. There may now be a case for replacing Flower of Scotland with Abba’s Money, Money, Money. PHIL JOHNSON, Bishopton,
Renfrewshire. DEREK MACKAY is faced with yet another tax dilemma. The SNP nailed its colours to the mast with the Finance Secretary being intensely proud of hammering 30 per cent of Scots with higher taxes than in England, but couched in terms of making life better for the other 70 per cent. Chancellor Philip Hammond has given Mr Mackay a masterclass in how to try to help all sections of society, not pit one against the other. The SNP is all about grievance politics. It does not do inclusiveness. Tax breaks for anyone earning a little above average is not on the SNP radar. Mr Mackay now has to pull a another rabbit out of his hat at his Christmas budget in order not to make Scotland seem a very dismal place to live and work if you want to get on in life.
GERALD EDWARDS, Glasgow. THE SNP is unhappy that Chancellor Philip Hammond left the Commons before its Westminster leader Ian Blackford’s response to the Budget. Is this the same Ian Blackford who left Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit statement early, in defiance of the Speaker? The same Ian Blackford who led a pathetic and pointless walkout of the Nationalist MPs at Westminster? If so, I have little sympathy. KAREN RICHARDS, Glasgow. NO wonder Philip Hammond didn’t stick around to hear Ian Blackford criticise his Budget. You could play word bingo with the self-appointed voice of the people of Scotland – ‘short-changed’; ‘missed opportunity’; ‘let down’; ‘must be heard’. The Nationalists are the only people who could be handed almost a billion and moan that it’s not enough. FRANK JAMIESON, Musselburgh,
East Lothian.