SNP is high on taxes but low on results

QUESTIONS about Derek Mackay’s abilities as Finance Secretary have dogged him since he was gifted the key job.

A track record in the profligate public sector did not bode well. And while his lack of familiarity with the Laffer Curve – which holds that lower taxation raises more revenue – made him a laughing stock, hardworking families seeing less in their takehome pay weren’t smiling.

He delivers his Budget on Wednesday and the ambitious and diligent will be disappointed, if not surprised, that his ‘progressive’ policies will continue to hit their finances.

Mr Mackay has indicated that he will not replicate tax breaks afforded to the middle classes outwith Scotland by Chancellor Philip Hammond.

So not only will Scots be allowed to keep less of their own money, the gap between what people south of the Border get for the same work will grow.

While blaming all Scotland’s ills on ‘Tory austerity’, Mr Mackay runs a Scottish Government surplus put at almost £500million in June. That looks less like prudence than a war chest to secure mercenary Green votes. Mr Mackay has picked up on Nicola Sturgeon’s class-warrior language of ‘no tax cuts for the rich’.

It shows how out of touch politicians are that they think a salary of £50,000 makes someone an oligarch.

The Finance Secretary is foisting eyewatering tax levels on ordinary Scots to line his government’s coffers, making the country less attractive to the brightest and best.

And the argument we live in a tartan utopia thanks to all this holds no water.

From crumbling roads to decrepit schools where literacy and numeracy are on the slide; from a feeble economy to an ailing NHS; from the shambolic handling of powers that the SNP does have to grievance about those it wants, and the ongoing uncertainty caused by endless agitation for independence, Scots see little reward for the highest tax rates in the UK.