Comments on: Does the Finance Secretary have any clothes?

By: John Ruddy

John Ruddy — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 16:24:07 +0000

Type your comment here

Doug Daniel: Aye, but these things take time

Remind me how long the SNP have been in power?

By: John Ruddy

John Ruddy — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 16:22:41 +0000

So why did he cut the local Government budget by more than his allocation from Westminster was cut?

I think the thing is we were all led to believe that John Swinney was some amazing Finance Secretary. The fact is, he isnt.

By: John Ruddy

John Ruddy — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 16:19:17 +0000

So why was EGIP cut? Its not even Scottish Government spending – its Network Rail spending.

Theres £350m thats not going to support th economy.

By: Doug Daniel

Doug Daniel — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 08:32:12 +0000

Aye, but these things take time – the last time a government rushed ahead with reforming local taxation, we ended up with the fudge that is council tax.

According to a Telegraph article in June, plans are still afoot to abolish council tax and replace it with a fairer system: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9347772/John-Swinney-to-consider-new-local-income-tax.html

Mr Macintosh tabled a parliamentary question asking Mr Swinney when he will bring forward proposals for a replacement and whether it would be the same plan that was the subject of the secrecy court cases.

In his reply, the Finance Minister said: “The Scottish government believes the current council tax system is unfair and will consult with others later in this Parliament to produce a fairer tax based on the ability to pay.
All potential alternative approaches will be considered as this work is progressed.”

So there’s desire to do this (although the SNP is committed to freezing council tax for five years – to do otherwise would be breaking a manifesto promise). Things might be helped if politicians from a certain party could try playing grown-up politics for once by letting the government and civil service do their job, rather than firing off a gazillion FOI requests to try and find things they can take out of context to use against the SNP.

By: Aidan

Aidan — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:11:42 +0000

1. Holyrood can’t borrow, but it can use devices such as NPD to a similar effect.

2. In the long run ricardian equivalence will kick in, sure, but increases in indirect taxation to fund direct spending are probably worth it.

3. I’m not sure how this squares with 1 and 2

4. Even without changing overall expenditure the Scottish Government can make choices about inelastic vs elastic spending such as top rate council tax freeze.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:09:36 +0000

Not true, we have local taxation powers, business rates and council tax. There’s loads of things we could do with local taxation to stimulate growth, raise more, etc etc. It’s not the powers that are missing, it’s the political will.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:01:07 +0000

The current tax powers are fine, we could replace council tax with a new tax (or taxes) that could make the tax burden more progressive (which itself would create an economic boost) and raise more too.

All it takes is a desire to use the powers we already have to maximum effect.

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:05:05 +0000

To answer your question, the Finance Secretary has more clothes than… say… either Osborne or Lamont. As has been pointed out in previous posts, the current Scottish Government can only spend what they are given until the Scotland Act comes into force and even then it’s hamstrung by tax proposals originally aired in the Calman Fudge proposals.

Of course, the Scottish Government could be aided by full Fiscal Autonomy, but we know that the pro Union parties are unwilling to facilitate this as it is not in their best interests. Even if Scotland voted yes, there is a rumor that Cameron would be unwilling to provide fisacl autonomy.

By: Jennie Kermode

Jennie Kermode — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:59:35 +0000

As regards teaching vs building infrastructure, I broadly agree with you, but it’s worth noting that the issue isn’t just the effectiveness of the investment, it’s the _perceived_ effectiveness of the investment. That is, because both international monetarists and private investors (here and abroad) have historically perceived infrastructure as a surer bet, it effectively has a higher value as regards how we can bargain against our expected future wealth. It would be nice to see that situation change but we can’t trigger such a change unilaterally.

By: JPJ2

JPJ2 — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 09:27:45 +0000

Aidan, given that the Scottish budget is fixed, anything radical is mathematically impossible until Scottish independence.

“Scottish” Labour need to grow up and recognise that:-)