Friday 26 September 2008

Are Lloyds-TSB Labour's Policy Wonks?

Just what was new Nu-Labour Scottish MSPs leader Iain Gray implying when he said that a Scottish Local Income Tax would affect Scottish jobs with HBOS?

Surely the man who is leader of only 45 other people isn't implying that a bank should be setting policy in Scotland? Last time I checked the board of Lloyds-TSB were not members of the Scottish Parliament. Also last time I checked Sarah Gordon Brown wasn't chief executive of Lloyds-TSB-Halifax-Bank of Scotland. So just what is Gray up to? Is he using a crisis for political gain? Scaremongering on a new tack with the same old refrain but with a new menace lurking in his wake?

The warnings from the CBI that Scotland's stalled economy would fail to grow once the crunch is over and that a consensus (when 46% of the people are actually in favour of LIT) are running on empty Iain. We've all seen that the wealthy are really only in it to keep as much of their own wealth to themselves and bugger fairness to those on the lowest incomes, very much like Labour policy. Ordinary people are looking for progressive not regressive taxation at the moment as they are struggling to make ends met. That way the hard working on lower incomes can spent theirs on what they need to spend it on rather than having a bulky flat rate tax set for something which in not reflective of their ability to pay.

Of course Gray did hint that Council Tax may have runs its course during his leadership election but has nothing concrete to bring to the table to replace it. We'll wait and see just how many of the same people also attack those proposals if and when they appear. Strangely people will always complain about their taxes and then always find the faults in any replacement system rather than weighing up the pros versus cons.

1 comment:

  1. Agreed - I couldn't work out the connection between HBOS and local income tax either.

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