Those of you who live in the rest of the UK will have no idea what a relief it is for us Scots to have some real politics to deal with at last. Scottish Labour’s announcement today that it wants to raise income tax for everybody in Scotland is terrific – simply because it means that this year’s election will be a real contest about real policies.
For the first time in years we are going to get an election which is not about the constitution. The tax powers which Scotland is going to get in April are fairly inflexible. A lock-step has been imposed which means that, if you want to raise one of the rates, you have to raise them all.
Kezia Dugdale, Labour’s Scottish leader, has decided that raising income tax is more important than the problems this causes, so she has just announced she will raise all the income tax rates in Scotland by 1p in the pound if she gains power in May.
The Liberal Democrats actually believe in the same thing but they are so small and ineffectual now that, even though they announced their tax-raising plans last week, no-one really paid any attention. The
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