Tax attacks

Some argue for higher taxes to protect critical public services. Others prefer to encourage a stronger economy, hoping higher incomes and more people in work generate the higher tax revenues. Either argument can be presented honestly and openly without resorting to political smoke and mirrors.

Yet as he presented his finalised Scottish Budget, finance secretary Derek Mackay chose to put more onus on political spin than honesty (“Scotland goes it alone on historic day as MSPS back tax shake-up”, 21 February).

He claimed more than half of taxpayers would pay less than the rest of the UK, as a ruse to hide the increased burden on the rest. The supposed “cut” actually amounts to a few pence per week less tax than would be paid elsewhere in the UK or what people in the real world refer to as “next to nothing”.

Meanwhile, middle income and higher income tax payers will pick up the overall tab for Finance Secretary’s fiscal posturing, chipping in anywhere between a little under £100 a year to well over £1,000 more than elsewhere in the UK.

So what is the finance secretary’s message for the people of Scotland? On the one hand he appears to judge lower income earners as mere pawns in a game of political spin, while on the other hand, middle and higher income earners now know they are to be considered cash cows to fund the SNP’S largesse.

I doubt many would be influenced to move south by this budget.

Yet when businesses have decisions to make over where to invest in the future, this rather cynical fiscal manipulation hardly provides a ringing endorsement for Project Scotland.

KEITH HOWELL West Linton, Peeblesshire