This fat tax cut will make a real difference to my life. It likely will for you too.
I’ll save something like £617 on my income. Then I’ll pocket another £350 through this big National Insurance cut.
Nearly one thousand pounds extra in my pocket, thanks to the Tories.
Now, I’ve an ageing granny in New Zealand I could visit with that money. I could finally get the super-deluxe season-ticket in the Dode Fox Upper tier at Tannadice with that money.
More likely, I could live life exactly the same as now but buy and eat an additional 9 delicious chocolate Freddo frogs fae the Scotmid every single day of the year with that money.
Certainly, an extra grand in the bank means I’ve nae worries about the upcoming massive energy bills in wintertime.
Except of course that I wilnae be getting that tax cut, none of yous will, either. Because we pay tax here in Scotland.
Less Freddos, more future
The SNP/Green coalition that operate in Holyrood haven’t been absolutely explicit about what they’ll be doing with the tax situation, but John Swinney’s statements have been staid.
Swinney is assembling a varied panel of experts to assess what the hell’s happening down the road, and judge what best course Scotland can chart within that.
It’s unlikely that we’ll match the cuts seen in Westminster.
England has turned itself into a tax haven.
More mental than that, the UK Government are committing to borrow – borrow! – many billions of pounds, at great expense, and give it to the wealthiest in society!
They are using the relatively good name within banking circles that the UK has built up over decades to massively enrich the elite.
I’d love an extra thousand pounds, of course. But not at the tremendous long and short term costs we’re seeing now.
And in Scotland, particularly in our part of it, we cannae afford to borrow massively to pay for our own tax cuts.
Vital services would disappear if tax was cut
Small advantages such as free NHS prescriptions, free bus travel for the under 22s, free early years childcare for bairns aged 3-4, the baby boxes, free university degrees – these are the thin pillars that stop the roof caving in on working class families and pensioners.
The drug consumption rooms that Dundee needs and will hopefully soon get, will save lives and cost us money, even though most of us hopefully will never use them.
Our sort-of-ok present and our hopefully-a-bitty-brighter future depends on a healthy amount of tax being paid.
A Conservative government in Holyrood that replicated the tax cuts would soon enough need to reduce or delete entirely our vital services.
Working class folk couldn’t guarantee a decent start in life for their bairns, indeed we already cannae, and it’ll get worse.
We couldn’t reliably get access to education beyond high school, and would therefore be denied that advantage. Our overall health would get worse as we’re forced to skip prescriptions when the money gets tight.
We need to hold our nerve. A short-term tax cut would feel reassuring in the pooch as the winter snows blow in. But we’d be throwing our future to the wolves.
Instead, this is a time, for those of us that can, to dig even deeper, and add a tithe to charity on top of our tax.
I’ll be bringing along cans and cash for the foodbank drive at this Saturday’s Dundee United v St Johnstone match.
🚨 TAYSIDE DERBY COLLECTION 🚨
We are back at Tannadice this weekend for @DundeeUnitedFC vs @StJohnstone
Please consider dropping in a donation to us on Saturday and let's continue to tackle food poverty #Taygether 🤝
More details here 👇#HungerDoesntWearClubColours pic.twitter.com/mS8n6vVjpY
— Fans Supporting Foodbanks Dundee (@DundeeFSF) September 28, 2022
Scotland’s government look like they’ll oppose the cut at Holyrood.
Lets oppose the cut, and the entire ethos behind it, with every charitable action we can, small or large. A decent future for us all depends on it.
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