New Scottish budget powers: massive backdoor cuts
by Raphie De Santos - 30-11-10
The new budget tax raising powers to be introduced in 2015 proposed by the LibDems to the Scottish Parliament represent a massive future cut of £5bn to the Scottish budget representing about 16% of current spending. It is an absolute piece of skull duggery . The LibDems should feel ashamed of this back door robbery . It in effect contains part of the cuts that the Coalition hopes to make to the NHS in England by 2014 which would amount to a further £2 billion a year off the Scottish budget.
Under the plan London will take 10p off the basic and higher rates of tax. The Scottish parliament can restore these rates or vary the basic and higher rates and introduce further additional rates of tax. Restoring these rates will leave a £5 billion shortfall in the budget as they the Coalition will cut the Scottish budget by 35% or just over £11 billion. Restoring the 10p cut in basic and higher rate taxes will only raise £6bn.
To restore the budget to its original level will require that the Scottish government raise taxes above the current levels. The Coalition are making huge cuts under the guise of giving Scotland more tax powers and letting the Scottish government take the flak for higher tax rates if they try to protect services.
These cuts are on top of massive cuts to the Scottish budget announced recently by the Coalition worth about 32% over four years if inflation is taken into account. Never has there been a better time for independence where we can fully control our wealth, companies and resources . Taking control of North Sea Oil alone would generate an extra £50 billion a year for Scotland. Redistributing wealth through taxing the rich and wealthy and corporations and taking the banking sector under social control and ownership is the alternative that can avoid the very serious austerity that the Coalition is planning for us.