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Scottish Parliament election

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Digesting the budget

  • Brian Taylor
  • 21 Mar 07, 04:28 PM

..... and there's more. Here at Holyrood, the canteen chicken kiev has been digested - and so has the Budget.
Labour smiles are still broad - but so is the consensus elsewhere.

鈥淐on trick鈥, says the SNP, noting that the 2p tax cut is married to scrapping the starting rate and tweaking National Insurance. 鈥淭ax con鈥, say the Tories. 鈥淪pin and gimmicks鈥, say the LibDems.

PS: Bit of a guddle over the motion for debate at Holyrood tomorrow. The version originally submitted by Labour鈥檚 Margaret Curran for the executive talked of 鈥渋ncreasing the powers available to the Scottish Parliament鈥 where appropriate.

Cue SNP glee. Exactly what we want, they chortled. That version has now been withdrawn. In its place, a version which still condemns independence - but merely notes the 鈥渞espective positions鈥 of the two coalition parties on further powers. Ms Curran blames a 鈥渃lerical error鈥. Isn鈥檛 politics wonderful?

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 04:43 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • derek barker wrote:

The pawns have all been eliminated and both side are playing the same political chess game,its no longer about check mate,its about making the popular move first,its rapidly becoming a game of sacrifice with no shame,"WHAT A DULL GAME THIS IS"

  • 2.
  • At 07:26 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • john wrote:

the tories in scotland must be pretty depressed by now. Cameron has had no impact up here, and now labour has joined the snp in stealing their clothes as tax cutters. Murdo fraser to mount a coup on may 4th?

  • 3.
  • At 09:34 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Clamjamfrie wrote:

The Budget,

a simple point Brian. You far too readily have accepted that Brown is scrapping the 10p rate. In fact, as now has become clear he is not. He is in effect doubling it, since the 20p rate will now start where the 10p rate was previously. That's a major reason why the budget will redistribute income from the relatively poor to the relatively rich. He has become the alter ego of Robin Hood.

  • 4.
  • At 12:37 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Edward wrote:

On the budget, I think it was a con, as Brown highlighted the 2p tax cut, but omitted to highlight that the 10p threshhold will be dropped as well as a hike in the National Insurance Contriburions.
Scotland will suffer from the increas in the small business Corporation tax, considering that there is a higher level of small businesses in Scotland. All in all Scotland will be worse off.
Brian, I alos notice the 91热爆 have not yet reported on the Scottish Prawn quota thats been given up by Ross Finnie , understandably the Scottish Fishermens Federation are furious at this and will mean a loss of 拢 1.8 million revenue for Scotland
What is also galling is that Westminster put pressure to have this story kept under cover yesterday (This came out in a Radio Scotland interview). Perhaps you should be reporting this

  • 5.
  • At 12:51 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Scott wrote:

Hrmmmmh a fake 2p cut in income tax or getting rid of the council tax and scrapping my student debt鈥︹︹up definitely SNP this year, me thinks.

I鈥檝e witnessed people being brought to tears by Council tax.
I鈥檝e witnessed people being brought to tears by their student debt.

Never by income tax.

And my paltry 16,000 salary will be hit harder thanks to Browns smoke and mirrors budget.

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