Something of a shouting match at First Minister's Questions today. I'll put up a link (here) when it is available (and when I have come back from watching the cricket at the pub).
It was inevitably all about local government taxation. I am sorry for those of you who find this boring because you are going to hear an awful lot about it over the next few weeks. Jack said the SNP were going to impose another poll tax on Scotland - which is rather stretching the point. Nicola asked him what his alternative policy was. Rather limply, Jack said that before the election he would announce proposals for making the council tax fairer.
I have already made clear (here) my less than complimentary opinion on the SNP proposals.
But the Labour Party is also in something of a bind. As far as we can gather, Jack's proposals are likely to follow yesterday's Lyons Report (here) by adding one or two bands to the existing council tax arrangements. But this could not be done without a property revaluation (the existing bands are based on valuations made in the early 1990s). A revaluation would horrify political parties because it would result in relatively large numbers of losers and winners (and the longer they leave it the worse it gets). Which is why in England the Lyons Report will be thrown into a cupboard and forgotten (and why it was released on budget day).
So what can our esteemed First Minister offer in the short term by way of reform of local government finance? Not a lot is likely to be the answer.
(By the way, would some civil servant take Mr McConnell aside and explain to him the difference between 'less' and 'fewer'? It would be so much nicer if the First Minister appeared to have had some education. Oh, and tell him to stop shouting when he runs out of proper answers.)
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