(Tuesday 9 September 2008)
Most attention has been paid to the merits and demerits of the plan for a "fairer" local income tax to replaces the "hated" council tax.
As far as I can see, there are three main problems with this - the replacement's not particularly fair, it's certainly not local and it would cost Scotland a fortune.
Even if the UK Department of Work and Pensions can be forced to allocate Scotland's £400 million of council tax benefit to the Scottish Parliament, as it implacably refuses to do, the proposed local income tax will still leave a shortfall of hundreds of millions of pounds in the budget for funding local government in Scotland. After the freeze, the cuts.
No-one believes that the SNP tax is "local." The rate would be set nationally, probably at 3 per cent. And the tax wouldn't even be collected locally by councils, but putatively by the Inland Revenue according to some as yet unknown and uncosted method which the Scottish government hopes will transpire.
In fact, it would virtually eliminate local taxation altogether and undermine the last vestiges of local democracy.
The fairness claim is also a con. You could devise a local income tax which was fairer than council tax, but this one isn't. What is so fair about a tax which shifts the burden from property owners to workers and, in particular, the much-vaunted "hard-working families" that politicians usually love so much?
In short, the SNP local income tax proposal is almost as half-baked as John Swinney's disastrous plan for a Scottish Futures Trust, which has already unravelled so much it hasn't even made it onto the legislative programme.
As the partisan vote on Wendy Alexander's punishment over funding fibs showed, the SNP government is a minority administration and it simply doesn't have support for key elements of its programme.
Could it be that SNP First Minister Alex Salmond isn't really serious about getting the flawed local income tax proposal on the statute book, but really just wants to claim that Labour opposed the abolition of the "hated" council tax?
All the candidates have made much of the idea that whoever wins will have a mandate from the whole party. The way that the votes have stacked up will show that this is not quite the case.
The votes in the parliamentary section will largely go to the Establishment candidates for leader and deputy, Iain Gray and Johann Lamont.
The MPs and MSPs were mostly gutted and backboned by new Labour HQ before they were allowed to get seats. Sadly, their votes each count as much as hundreds of ordinary members.
The interesting thing, though, will be how the constituencies and affiliates have voted.
Look out for the proportion who have voted for Cathy Jamieson and Bill Butler. Win, lose or draw, I think that they will demonstrate large support at the grass roots.
I think that Butler has done well in his deputy leadership campaign and his vote, in particular, will indicate whether the left in the party is still in fighting shape.
Party political control of West Dunbartonshire has been volatile, to say the least. The unions and community groups hope to persuade the warring factions to see some sense and reverse a decision which damages the council's own workers, their families and communities.
The unions are justifiably angry about a controversial SNP motion agreed during a council meeting last month, despite a demonstration outside the chamber by hundreds of workers and local people.
Effectively, the council voted to withdraw thousands of pounds due in back payments to low-paid women workers, cut public holidays for workers by a third and renege on other terms of an already tough single-status employment deal passed on a Labour motion only three months before.
The unions and community groups want the council to think again.
The lobby of councillors takes place tomorrow from 1pm at Garshake council offices, Dumbarton, before the council meeting at 2pm.
Whether Labour or SNP win the by-election on Thursday September 18, I hope and expect that the citizens of Glasgow will give the traditional hostile reception to the odious BNP candidate Charlie Baillie wherever and whenever he appears.
Already, the Glasgow Campaign To Welcome Refugees has mobilised activists to put out Unite Against Fascism leaflets and public-sector union UNISON is throwing its weight behind the anti-fascist action.
Let's kick this scum out of Scotland.
One less-than-fizzy firework was the government's legislative programme, some of which is OK, some rubbish and some already doomed because of parliamentary arithmetic.
The other whimpering sound was the vote held over from the last session on whether Wendy Alexander should spend a day in the parliamentary can for fibbing about donations to her hilarious non-election campaign for leader of the Labour MSPs just a year ago.
I would have voted to suspend Alexander for a day. As far as I can see, the rules were broken and she was responsible. Yeah, I know, I'm Mr Probity. But she should count herself lucky.
In many jobs, the level of mendacity shown by the Alexander campaign team would have been sufficient for the sack, not just a rap over the knuckles. The lower paid you are, the more likely the sack would be. We should all be so lucky.
Alexander's campaign manager Jackie Baillie bleats that her former leader has "paid a very high price."
Boo hoo.
The Labour Party has paid an enormous price for the casual hubris displayed by Alexander and Gordon Brown in co-ordinating shoo-ins instead of democratic elections for leadership positions.
It is paying an enormous price for the casual fraud, perpetrated by its leaders on its members, of seeking donations from business people, hoping to keep them hidden and then spuriously claiming that everything was above board when they were rumbled.
Anyway, that sideshow is hopefully now over. Move along folks, there's nothing much to see here any more except a partisan display of the voting strengths and weaknesses in the Scottish Parliament.
Labour lined up to get Alexander off the hook. The SNP dutifully lined up on the other side. The Tories all sided with Labour, probably on the basis that they know how it feels to be caught with your hand in the till. The Lib Dems apparently took the notion that this was a free vote seriously and split 50-50.
I caught up with him last week at a meeting with trade unionists in the STUC Centre in Glasgow before he headed off to appear in one of his perennially sold-out stage shows, this time at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre.
As he pointed out to the gathering at the STUC, it was the show which had sold out, not the performer.
Popular socialism indeed. Encore.
MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.
Local income tax ploy?
THE minority SNP government presented us with its legislative programme for the next year as the Scottish Parliament opened last week.Most attention has been paid to the merits and demerits of the plan for a "fairer" local income tax to replaces the "hated" council tax.
As far as I can see, there are three main problems with this - the replacement's not particularly fair, it's certainly not local and it would cost Scotland a fortune.
Even if the UK Department of Work and Pensions can be forced to allocate Scotland's £400 million of council tax benefit to the Scottish Parliament, as it implacably refuses to do, the proposed local income tax will still leave a shortfall of hundreds of millions of pounds in the budget for funding local government in Scotland. After the freeze, the cuts.
No-one believes that the SNP tax is "local." The rate would be set nationally, probably at 3 per cent. And the tax wouldn't even be collected locally by councils, but putatively by the Inland Revenue according to some as yet unknown and uncosted method which the Scottish government hopes will transpire.
In fact, it would virtually eliminate local taxation altogether and undermine the last vestiges of local democracy.
The fairness claim is also a con. You could devise a local income tax which was fairer than council tax, but this one isn't. What is so fair about a tax which shifts the burden from property owners to workers and, in particular, the much-vaunted "hard-working families" that politicians usually love so much?
In short, the SNP local income tax proposal is almost as half-baked as John Swinney's disastrous plan for a Scottish Futures Trust, which has already unravelled so much it hasn't even made it onto the legislative programme.
As the partisan vote on Wendy Alexander's punishment over funding fibs showed, the SNP government is a minority administration and it simply doesn't have support for key elements of its programme.
Could it be that SNP First Minister Alex Salmond isn't really serious about getting the flawed local income tax proposal on the statute book, but really just wants to claim that Labour opposed the abolition of the "hated" council tax?
The end is in sight
THE polls close on the Scottish Labour leadership election today and the result is due on Saturday.All the candidates have made much of the idea that whoever wins will have a mandate from the whole party. The way that the votes have stacked up will show that this is not quite the case.
The votes in the parliamentary section will largely go to the Establishment candidates for leader and deputy, Iain Gray and Johann Lamont.
The MPs and MSPs were mostly gutted and backboned by new Labour HQ before they were allowed to get seats. Sadly, their votes each count as much as hundreds of ordinary members.
The interesting thing, though, will be how the constituencies and affiliates have voted.
Look out for the proportion who have voted for Cathy Jamieson and Bill Butler. Win, lose or draw, I think that they will demonstrate large support at the grass roots.
I think that Butler has done well in his deputy leadership campaign and his vote, in particular, will indicate whether the left in the party is still in fighting shape.
Staff keep up pressure
UNISON, Unite and GMB unions representing workers for West Dunbartonshire Council are calling on the whole community to support a lobby of the special council meeting tomorrow.Party political control of West Dunbartonshire has been volatile, to say the least. The unions and community groups hope to persuade the warring factions to see some sense and reverse a decision which damages the council's own workers, their families and communities.
The unions are justifiably angry about a controversial SNP motion agreed during a council meeting last month, despite a demonstration outside the chamber by hundreds of workers and local people.
Effectively, the council voted to withdraw thousands of pounds due in back payments to low-paid women workers, cut public holidays for workers by a third and renege on other terms of an already tough single-status employment deal passed on a Labour motion only three months before.
The unions and community groups want the council to think again.
The lobby of councillors takes place tomorrow from 1pm at Garshake council offices, Dumbarton, before the council meeting at 2pm.
Let's kick the scum out
THE fascist BNP is putting up a candidate for the Glasgow Baillieston council ward. That's the seat vacated by the SNP as a result of John Mason's victory in Glasgow East.Whether Labour or SNP win the by-election on Thursday September 18, I hope and expect that the citizens of Glasgow will give the traditional hostile reception to the odious BNP candidate Charlie Baillie wherever and whenever he appears.
Already, the Glasgow Campaign To Welcome Refugees has mobilised activists to put out Unite Against Fascism leaflets and public-sector union UNISON is throwing its weight behind the anti-fascist action.
Let's kick this scum out of Scotland.
Last whimper of 'Wendygate'
THE Scottish Parliament came back from the summer recess last week, not with a bang but a couple of whimpers.One less-than-fizzy firework was the government's legislative programme, some of which is OK, some rubbish and some already doomed because of parliamentary arithmetic.
The other whimpering sound was the vote held over from the last session on whether Wendy Alexander should spend a day in the parliamentary can for fibbing about donations to her hilarious non-election campaign for leader of the Labour MSPs just a year ago.
I would have voted to suspend Alexander for a day. As far as I can see, the rules were broken and she was responsible. Yeah, I know, I'm Mr Probity. But she should count herself lucky.
In many jobs, the level of mendacity shown by the Alexander campaign team would have been sufficient for the sack, not just a rap over the knuckles. The lower paid you are, the more likely the sack would be. We should all be so lucky.
Alexander's campaign manager Jackie Baillie bleats that her former leader has "paid a very high price."
Boo hoo.
The Labour Party has paid an enormous price for the casual hubris displayed by Alexander and Gordon Brown in co-ordinating shoo-ins instead of democratic elections for leadership positions.
It is paying an enormous price for the casual fraud, perpetrated by its leaders on its members, of seeking donations from business people, hoping to keep them hidden and then spuriously claiming that everything was above board when they were rumbled.
Anyway, that sideshow is hopefully now over. Move along folks, there's nothing much to see here any more except a partisan display of the voting strengths and weaknesses in the Scottish Parliament.
Labour lined up to get Alexander off the hook. The SNP dutifully lined up on the other side. The Tories all sided with Labour, probably on the basis that they know how it feels to be caught with your hand in the till. The Lib Dems apparently took the notion that this was a free vote seriously and split 50-50.
The way to grow old
IT'S always a pleasure to be in the company of Tony Benn. As he ages, he seems to get more optimistic but no less radical, which is a good way to grow old.I caught up with him last week at a meeting with trade unionists in the STUC Centre in Glasgow before he headed off to appear in one of his perennially sold-out stage shows, this time at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre.
As he pointed out to the gathering at the STUC, it was the show which had sold out, not the performer.
Popular socialism indeed. Encore.
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