ABERDEEN BUT WHO CAN MANAGE THE BUST?
The parties need to start levelling with us and tell the truth about the coming storm
web You couldn’t dodge tax last week. Well, you couldn’t avoid the debate around tax, at least.
From April 6, the Scottish Parliament get new powers to change income tax and next year, they will have complete control.
A new debate star ted among Scotland’s parties as they attempt to micro- differentiate, to show (if they aren’t the Tories) that they can mitigate “austerity”, and mark out alternative public spending choices.
Much of this is problematic. It is about relatively small amounts of money – Labour claiming to raise up to £110 million from a 50p tax rate on those over £150,000; Lib Dems of £ 475million with a 1p rise in the basic rate.
Sometimes parties want to emphasise certainty – Labour saying no one earning £ 20,000 or less will pay more tax, the Greens that everyone under £26,500 will pay less.
Others want to stress uncertainty and volatility – the SNP saying that a higher tax rate of 50p could cost the country £ 30million as people leave and the Tories similarly evoking the prospect of thousands fleeing a tartan tax.
There is an absence of honesty about the scale of the coming public spending cuts. These have been estimated at £2billion per annum by 2020.
Directly questioned about this on a BBC Scotland 2016 special on tax, every one of the six parties avoided this.
There were, when explicitly invited, no details from any of them on the difficult choices we have to make.
All the parties talked of maintaining and even expanding services, and putting right the shortcomings of others.
All of this illustrated the insubstant ia l nature of party policy-making – Labour’s 1p tax policy having come unstuck the previous week, and none of the parties offering anything of any great imagination.
It also revealed the thin nature of what it means to be “progressive” – seemingly about small amounts of tax increases and trying to pretend everything will be all right in the future.
Scot land ’ s war iness i s a l so exemplified in the debate about wider public benefits.
Giving some selected benefits for free to all, whatever their income, is a choice and means that money is being spent there and not somewhere else.
The SNP, Labour, Lib Dems and Greens don’t want to address this basic truth. Instead, the mantra of free tuition fees, free care for the elderly, the council tax freeze and no prescription charges is presented as progressive and aiding social justice.
It doesn’t and never has because social justice is about helping those in most need and redistributing from the wealthy to those who are more disadvantaged.
All of the big- ticket items such as tuition fees and care for the elderly actually aid those with more money and take it away from the poorest and those on average incomes.
Scotland is going to eventually have to properly debate tax and benefits. It is just that none of the parties want to have it in front of the voters. A land of pretending everything is going to be fine, and that we can protect core public services in a world of cuts and uncertainty, is not one where g rown- up politics and mature debate will flourish.
We now h a v e taxation powers but still have to learn tax policy isn’t just about raising monies but about encouraging and discouraging certain b eh av iou r s a nd sending signals about the kind of society you aspire to be.
Whatever you say about Cameron and Osborne, and you can say plent y, the y understand this in and their policies on tax and the rest not only reflect their view of what society is but how they would like it to be.
Scotland’s pol itical classes are showing an absence of leadership and honesty because they don’t think voters want to hear bad news.
This is going to make it even more difficult when the coming storm of cuts descends.
Wouldn’t it be better for one of Scotland’s parties to start levelling with us now and be honest about the decisions that someone soon is going to have to make?
Who knows? Voters might even like an honest politician treating them like grown-ups.
Scotland’s political classes simply don’t think voters want to hear bad news