Leonard’s spending plans are all very well but where will the cash come from?
Now that Richard Leonard (Perspective, 31 August) has set out the many areas of social policy – NHS, Education, Police, Pensions – where Scottish Labour will spend more, might he use his next column to explain how this will be paid for?
Three central matters need addressing. The first is whetherhespeaksofspendingwhich Scottish Labour would undertake, regardless of whether Labour is in power at Westminster. If in power at Westminster, the second matter is whether he will be allowed to diverge from the promise of “sound finances” made by UK Labour. Third, in either scenario, what measures are proposed to raise the additional spending which, on the basis of his article and other promises made by his senior colleagues, will require an additional £3-4 billion per year? The taxation proposals put forward by Scottish Labour at the last election would, in favourable conditions, struggle to bring in £1bn.
ROBERT FARQUHARSON
Lee Crescent , Edinburgh
Richard Leonard is the latest Labour politician to blame the SNP for not spending enough on dealing with Tory austerity. Despite ongoing cuts to its budget, the Scottish Government is already spending over £100 million a year mitigating the worst aspects of Tory welfare cuts while managing to provide the best education, health and social services in the four nations.
Council leaders in Wales claimed that they are having to look at savings of 4.5 per cent this financial year thanks to cuts from the Labour-controlled Assembly and guess what, Jeremy Corbyn blamed the Tories at Westminster for the cuts. However, in January 2015, 28 Scottish Labour MPS voted with the UK Tory government for £75bn of austerity cuts to public finances which is still having an impact on our services, and in July four Labour MPS kept the Tories in office by voting with them on a key Brexit trade Bill.
Of course, there is a way to stop this blame game and that is for Scotland to have control of its finances – but Labour opposed devolving all major taxes, other than limited Income Tax powers, to the Scottish Parliament.
London still controls more than 60 per cent of the taxes raised in Scotland and until that changes we are at the mercy of policies and financial priorities that the majority in Scotland didn’t vote for.
FRASER GRANT
Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh