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they don’t vote for the SNP anyway.

S Mcduck So the best the anti-snpers can do is reference the initial figures that have all increased in the years since. Scotland now has better productivi­ty, growth and employment figures than RUK. The Scottish Government has no control over the economy in any real way.

Dunnomuch

SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay thinks that an 8% shortfall in income tax revenue is “progressiv­e”. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Ah’m no bluffin

In a time of record employment the Scottish gov is unable to balance its tax books? Wonder how big the hole would be minus the higher rate tax increases. This country is going into reverse with this lot at the wheel.

David Blair [Mackay] misses the point about people relocating. The point is that the higher existing tax regime for skilled people is a disincenti­ve to relocation into Scotland, especially when they perceive the present increased tax to be the thin end of a very long wedge.

Paul Holyrood

No country has EVER taxed its way to prosperity.

David Kilpatrick

With a Brexit budget in the offing it might be best to reserve judgment until the details emerge. The Office for Budget Responsibi­lity is forecastin­g a recession in the event of no deal scenario and the Brexit budget will no doubt take this into account. Only a fool would actually increase taxes with a recession a possibilit­y.

Auxiliary Lines An increase of 1.8% of taxpayers earning over 43k means more people buying less as they have less disposable income. Between that and internet shopping the high street has a double whammy.

Shengis Mckhan Boris Johnson could be the last prime minister of the United Kingdom unless a fightback is launched, speaking up for “mainstream” Scots and making a “progressiv­e case” for the Union, Gordon Brown warned as he launched a think tank.

No point being nostalgic, the Union has broken and we’re just going through the motions until Scotland and England eventually split and govern themselves.

Andrew Cuthbert

Just what the world needs, another “think tank”. The “think tanks” in the UK tend to do very little actual thinking or research and usually just act as a way to pay academics to produce propaganda that serves a particular view or interest. Almost all start with an agenda and then craft the “facts” to fit their narrative.

Kampunghig­hlander

Mr Brown said: “The SNP plans are for independen­ce at all costs and that will lead to hyper austerity.” Wrong – they will lead to Scotland’s bankruptcy, and serious social disorder, which will cause a wave of economic migration, primarily to England. With the potential to achieve this level of damage to the national interest the situation is likely to receive the attention it deserves.

Jeremy Clark’s Son ... like the wave of economic migration from the republic of Ireland that still goes on to this day.

David Thomson

A new think tank. Wow, and this from the [man] who gave away our gold reserves, “delivered” the end of boom and bust in the worlds stock markets and shouted “it was the banks’ fault”, when the great recession of 2008 happened on his watch.

Jim Brown

Anybody who says the union could end doesn’t even know what it is and how deep it goes into every facet of our daily lives. Maybe Brown should repurpose his think tank, Corbyn is far more likely to end Labour.

Calum Mackenzie

 ??  ?? 0 A recent visit to the Isle of Mull led Scotsman reader William Crawford of Kirknewton, West Lothian, to compose this reflective image of the island’s beauty in the summer sunshine
0 A recent visit to the Isle of Mull led Scotsman reader William Crawford of Kirknewton, West Lothian, to compose this reflective image of the island’s beauty in the summer sunshine

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