Ground control to Major Tom
Indypal One here. I know it’s hardly an original thought but Labour have really lost it haven’t they? They are floating in the most peculiar way.
The latest spat over the SNP’s proposals for local taxation is a case in point. In case you haven’t read about it yet the UK Work and Pensions Minister has said that, if the Scottish Parliament legislates for a system of local taxation based on ability to pay, Westminster will claw back the £400 million that is paid annually in council tax benefit.
Why? Because according to him "If they are promoting a system that is income-related and based on the ability to pay, then there is no need for a benefit on top of that. They can't have it both ways.’
Well actually we can. And do.
Council tax may be based on the value of property but council tax benefit is income-based. There is no logic in saying that an income-based benefit can be bolted on to a tax system based on property values but cannot be bolted onto an income-based tax.
It doesn’t actually matter whether local taxation is in the form of rates, the poll tax or the council tax. Through all these permutations, relief continued to be paid to councils to compensate for those whose incomes did not pass the threshold which made them liable to pay. So what is different about moving from council tax to a local income tax? Nothing – except it is the SNP proposing it.
I am pretty sure however, reading this Scotlandon Sunday article, that James Purnell does not understand the proposals. He appears to think that the SNP is asking for extra money to deliver local tax reform. They are not. The proposal is simply to spend existing money in a different way. So when Purnell says that the SNP is asking for extra money which would not go to the rest of the country he is just plain wrong. The SNP is not asking for any more or less than we have now.
After all it is our own money we are talking about. It should be up to us, not Westminster , to decide how we want to spend our own money.
But what gets me is how on earth the Labour Party could think that threatening to withhold this money will win back any of the political ground that was lost last year? It is more likely to have the opposite effect. Not that I am complaining – it’s all to the SNP’s advantage.
