SNP leadership of Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney consider making Scots pay the highest income tax in the United Kingdom, when Sturgeon’s newfound friends and voters realise she screwed them like a bitch, expect a huge backlash, will it be “fuck you, you ‘yellow Tory’” on the doorsteps of Scotland?

Dear All

It seems that the SNP leadership of unpopular Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney have a gift for all those people who vote SNP at Westminster 2015.

The Nationalists have admitted they are actively considering increasing income tax in Scotland.

SNP who use the con trick of standing up for Scotland are faced with the harsh reality of government.

In the past the SNP ran with a disaster campaign called “penny for Scotland” in the first Holyrood election in 1999.

In that election they got slaughtered, now Nicola Sturgeon will be taking a damn sight more than pennies off Scots, every single week out of their pay packets.

Vote SNP get shit service and higher taxes.

I assume that the Nationalists will hold off until post 2016; then bring in a budget once they have tried to secure a majority.

Don’t expect to see the raises of taxes in the SNP manifesto; it might come in the form of an emergency budget hyped up to blame Westminster with Nicola Sturgeon probably using kids, possibly at a Hospital to sell it.

If there is going to be tax rises; then also expect the SNP to aim high with something along the lines of 5 p in the pound to be drastically reduced at a ‘ten to midnight’ scenario.

When the SNP want to screw you financially, their narrative is that they are the ‘heroes’.

An increase of 1p in income tax north of the Border would raise £330 million for the Scottish Government; however that is meaningless, I would think that if you are going to inflict pain, you might go with 3 pence in the pound.

Might you, this might tempt George Osborne to do higher cuts, so it is a double edge sword.

Incidentally, higher taxes in Scotland in Scotland wouldn’t lead to a Scottish Conservative revival, just in case you didn’t know that.  

Ruth Davidson, and I say this in passing failed her real test of leadership in 2010, although she benefited from tactical votes, she stands to have a bad 2016 election. The men in grey suits can’t have failed to notice her first loss; then will come the second.

The Scottish Conservatives haven’t paid the blood price in Scotland.

Down the road, the Treasury said cuts announced last week will not hit Scotland as hard as expected.

This is classic politics, tell people a tale of woe and then get cut down to the number you had already intended to do.

Given it is £107 million, I would think there is a case for 2 pence in the pound on income tax, which is what I would go, big enough to be useful and small enough to look trendy.

In a move to appear reasonable, George Osborne also confirmed that any decreases could be postponed until 2017.

This, he said was to allow the Scottish Government time to adjust its budget, an offer which is not available to Whitehall departments.

Presumably, the Conservatives hope that Labour do as badly as they did in 2015 and therefore usher in Ruth Davidson as the official opposition, although a tactic, it won’t work.

Asked by the press if he would raise taxes to offset austerity cuts, Swinney said:

“We’ll consider all these questions as we prepare our budget. What we will consider is how we can best take forward investment in our public services given the fact that we’ve had a further reduction in the budget that we expected from the Chancellor.”

He added:

“We will have the powers, the question is whether we decide to change the tax arrangements of the UK and we will give the answer to that during the budget process of the Scottish Government.”

So, two choices; cut services and face a backlash from people or raise taxes and be disliked as ‘yellow Tories’.

2 pence on income tax is the way forward.

Yours sincerely

George Laird 

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University