Scottish Lib Dem Leader Tavish Scott sent out an e-mail to members and supporters today outlining his reasons for the party's refusal to support the SNP's budget in Holyrood.
Slamming it as "weakest response of any Western European Government, national or devolved, to the economic difficulties we face in 2009", Tavish outlines Lib Dem proposals for permanent tax cuts, pointing out that the Nationalists have the option of varying the rate of income tax north of the border and could, if they choose, give us all a 2p in the pound tax cut. This would put around £330 back in the pockets of the average Scottish family.
Now, I've not always been the biggest fan of the tax cutting culture that seems to have gripped our party, but I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt at the moment as we are dealing with the recession. The SNP's ultra safe budget does nothing to give the Scottish economy the stimulus it needs. They have already made cuts to bodies like Scottish Enterprise when we actually need them more than ever now.
I think our MSPs are right to vote against what is effectively an unambitious and lacklustre budget.
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2 comments:
Hi Caron,
I've nott seen anything anywhere on what it is the Lib Dems woulc cut from Swinney's budget to pay for the 800million tax cut.
Could you point me in the right direction?
Thanks,
Jeff
I think Lib Dem MSP Jeremy Purvis set all this out in his Scotsman article way back in September. It's at http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/opinion/Focus-Tax-cut-the-right.4536235.jp
It seems to need a premium subscription to get the full text - maybe someone knows if there's a way round that. He has repeated the main parts in every speech on the Budget since then, as far as i remember.
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