Thursday 18 November 2010

SNP Competence, an oxymoron....

I have been watching the BBC Scottish News dance around a report that the SNP has let the Scottish Parliament's powers to vary taxes slip away.... It was as if they couldn't believe the facts, or they couldn't believe that anyone could be so stupid and that they were unable to absorb the sheer importance of the story.

Seriously, the Nats who keep harping on about greater fiscal autonomy, who want Holyrood to handle more and more of our tax and spend powers, they "forgot" to renew the tax varying powers of the Scottish Parliament.

Just.

Clean.

Forgot.



SNP Business Management in Action

What a bunch of fools. You can imagine the furore if a Labour administration had "forgotten" to renew one of the key powers of the devolved Parliament: heads must roll would be the least of it. "Perfidy" and "treason" would be called out from the highest hilltop.

Hat tip to Better Nation for the letter from Michael Moore to Alex Salmond telling him the sorry news....

"Dear Eck,
you cocked it up...

Love
Michael".

14 comments:

  1. Except it was going to cost Scotland £7 million to keep that option open which even previous adminstrations hadn't used.

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  2. Nats = total idiots and/or liars, more interested in picking fights than responsible government.

    If anyone needed more confirmation of the above, then this is it.

    Please, please can all Scots vote anti-Nat in May, for whichever candidate in their constituency can evict or deny a member of this troupe of poltroons.

    Get them out!

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  3. Seems fair enough tae me. The 3p variation, maist kindly granted us by Westminster, wis, an wis aye meant tae be, sic a regressive an blunt instrument that it wis practically useless. The SNP said sae lang syne. So tae pay £7million tae upgrade the 'calculators' wis a bit steep fer somethin that nane o the pairties want tae use. The SNP has aye ca'ed fer full control across the range o taxation, an no wantin tae pay fer the privilege o power ower a single tax change they dinnae want sits quite easy in ma heid. They huvnae gied awa the right tae that control if they want it, an they cannae either. We voted that power tae Holyrood the parliament if ye mynd richt.

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  4. @cynicalhighlander

    Except it would have cost £50,000 if the option had been taken up in 2007...

    ReplyDelete
  5. @sophia pangloss.

    Note your surname and presume panglossian view of SNP.

    Also note you don't agree with devolution in which case presume you excoriate the SNP for taking part.

    In which case all arguments are moot.

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  6. So once again the Labour view is that Scottish resource should go to HMRC with no tangible benefits to Scotland.

    Andy Kerr - "Labour has no plans to increase income tax in Scotland"

    A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The agreement with HMRC regarding the Scottish Variable Rate covered the period July 1, 2003 to July 31, 2007 – at which point HMRC themselves announced they would be installing a new IT platform and that further discussions would be needed regarding additional multi-million investment requirements to operate the 3p tax power – beyond the £12 million and £50,000 annual cost paid by the previous administration for a tax power that has never been used.

    “This administration does not advocate increasing income tax for people in Scotland, and spending yet more millions on a limited tax power which none of the major parties wanted to use could not possibly be justified at a time when it was clear that public spending would be constrained.”

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  7. @Jim

    I have to apologise: apparently they didn't forget to relinquish our tax raising powers that we voted for, they did it deliberately!

    And the didn't tell anyone....

    Now, did they just "forget" to tell us, or was that deliberate too?

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  8. YES! That's right. They did it deliberately. Didn't want to waste money on a system that no one said they wanted to use. Nor use a system that only impacts on basic rate payers - note; not the higher end.

    I'm glad you got there in the end. Sheesh. Some people and their irrational hatred of the SNP.

    Are the Liberal Democrats angry because they wanted to use the power? (And hence their hysterical reaction of the power being "lost" when it's not)

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  9. @Braveheart

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/briantaylor/2010/11/cats_and_lions.html#P103261266

    ReplyDelete
  10. You may be interested in the reply. Have to say I find it somewhat sickening that so many Scottish political bloggers were keen to believe the Tories (OK Michael Moore but he may as well be a Tory) before the Scottish Government even responded. Alex Salmond's response is pretty uncompromising. Do you seriously think that if the SG had messed up as you say Jim Murphy would not have noticed? There's a lot that can be said about Jim Murphy but he is a wee bit more on the ball than Michael Moore.

    I realise Labour types hate the SNP but it is really sad that you hate them to the extent that you will immediately back the Tories rather than the elected Scottish Government.

    You must know that if the situation was reversed the SNP would never do that.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "You are old, Father William," the young man said,
    "And your hair has become very white;
    And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
    Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

    With acknowledgement to Lewis Carrol.

    Standing on heads the Nationalist speciality..

    ..the party of rugged Scottish insularity deliberately refuses the one option that differentiates the Scots from the rest of the UK......

    We meant it! Honest! It's a good idea!


    Listen to yourselves...
    Aye right...

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  12. Ooh Braveheart, ye're no half talkin keich aren't ye? Ah ken ye'll likely no pit this up, but why dae a blog an then answer ony comments wi that 'all arguments are moot' shite an the pseudo-namecallin?

    Ah'll no bother callin again, sorry fer disturbin ye.

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  13. TBH Sophia, IMO all the responses are nonsense.

    The SNP, the party that wants ultimate political and economic power for itself and Scotland rejects the one extra economic power that devolution delivers.. sorry... just not believable nor justifiable.

    Certainly none of the respondants here has gone any way in justifying it.

    It's non-sense.

    Sorry you won't be back.

    BTW, it's "keech", not "keich".

    ReplyDelete
  14. Final thoughts as posted on Munguin's Republic

    http://munguinsrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/11/salmond-corrects-michael-moore-on-tax.html#comment-form

    I have read Ecks' reply at least three times, and I have to say that it does not approach answering the problem.

    "...HMRC said in 2007 that additional work was needed to maintain the readiness of the IT system, and in summer 2008 made clear that they would be installing a new IT platform. Scottish Government officials attempted to elicit information on what this meant for Scotland and the functionality of the 3p tax power. We were finally asked on 28 July this year to pay over the sum of £7 million to HMRC for this purpose...."

    Why was the £50,000 not paid in 2007 and 2008?

    Why was no negotiation entered into on the £7 million?

    What happened between 2007 and 2010?

    Why is it only becoming public now?

    The SNP has never been shy at picking fights wioth Westminster over any trivial issue. Here was a real issue: why no fight and no fuss?

    And why is it not worth maintaining the one power we have to vary the economic basics in Scotland as compared to the UK?

    John Swinney mentioned in his budget speech last week that he had decided not to use the tax raising powers, but if he already knew that the powers had been relinquished, why did he not mention that? Why pretend he had considered and rejected the use of the powers if he already knew that he didn't have them?

    The SNP is always going on about increased powers for Scotland: here was one increased power we already had and they let it go, and they told no-one.

    Sorry. Not believable. Not credible. I'm not swallowing it and neither will the Scottish public.

    It's a joke. A sick joke. And it's not funny.

    ReplyDelete