A budget to fool them all

Sir, – Derek Mackay’s budget was very smart. The poor and uninformed think he has soaked the rich to pay for a public sector pay rise, and the media oblige with headlines that he has “hammered” 750,000 Scots earning over £33,000, which he hasn’t.

It’s pitched as necessary to deal with Tory “austerity” and give more for the NHS, schools and broadband, and buys off Patrick Harvie, out-Corbyns Richard Leonard and plants a big “I’m a horrible Tory” stamp on many foreheads.

The truth is until you get to those earning £75K pa, the maximum effect is plus or minus £90 per year.

The £164m tax increase might cover the pay rises but not £400m for the NHS, £600m for broadband, £400m promised for child care, or the bluster about supporting WASPI women (£800m).

There are only four

solutions: grow the economy, borrow, more tax or a lot more cuts.

The Scottish economy is forecast to grow 0.7%, and the SNP can’t borrow, in fact the UK pays for the £14 billion “GERS” deficit.

So that leaves more taxes and cuts. Free prescriptions costing £1.1bn a year and free bus passes and other travel (£250m) are sacred cows, so raising council tax seems the best option, since Mr Mackay can blame councils, and, if Angus Council’s 20% workforce cuts are replicated across Scotland, around 50,000 jobs will go in the next three years, shaving around at least £1bn in wages while unemployment benefits are paid by Westminster, who can also be blamed for the paucity of these benefits.

So at a stroke the SNP have conned the poor, not laid a glove on the rich, and set the scene for the real tax and spend surgery that unfortunately Scotland needs before it can be viable – in or out out of the UK.

Allan Sutherland. 1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.