IT is disturbing to see the intense pressure put on the Scottish Finance Secretary to equal the tax cuts (not unexpectedly) granted to higher-tax payers by the Westminster Chancellor ("Warning to Mackay: Cut tax or see Scots cash go south", The Herald, November 1). Most of us, I suspect, are not fans of the library-less, Bupa-reliant world, with crippling debts heaped on its graduate children, which seems to be the way of life further south. Public services must be paid for, and given the numbers of our citizens relying on food banks, it does seem fair that the better-off should carry rather more than their fair share.

Martin Axford,

18 Bonar Crescent, Bridge of Weir.

COMPARE and contrast: husband gets out of hospital and told he needs a care worker. Care worker comes seven days a week free at the point of use. A friend in England in exactly the same boat is told care worker will cost £200 to £800 a week. Needless to say my friend at the age of 76 struggles to look after her husband on her own. No doubt this will be music to some ears: putting a tax on the sick is what Dr Gerald Edwards (Letters, October 31) seems to prefer to a tax on the “poor” 30 per cent.

Myra Gartshore,

Barloan Place, Dumbarton.

ALTHOUGH his comparison with the Brexit catastrophe is a bit dramatic I am grateful for Raymond Hall’s explanation (Letters, November 1) why the Scottish Government should apply the same tax rates across the bands as the rest of the UK. After Philip Hammond announced the UK budge tit I didn’t take long for the new double act of the Scottish Tories and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to swing into gear to do Scotland down again, they just can’t help it. I have long questioned the impartiality of the OBR which miraculously "found" an extra £20 odd billion to help the Chancellor justify his tax cuts. I have no doubt of the sincerity of Mr Hall, but he misses the whole point of fiscal independence – to allow Scotland to follow its own economic and social plan.

It might be old-fashioned but the principle of everyone "paying their share" for the benefits our country offers is a fair one and rarely challenged. The prospects of "going offshore" and paying less tax in another country while enjoying all the benefits of living in Scotland is simply the latest wheeze in the catalogue of greed being written by and for those who have a good income but seem perpetually exercised in what is no better than tax dodging.

I understand that the UK Government is already considering or has already designated an English tax domicile of some of its employees working in Scotland such that they pay English taxes and thus make no contribution towards Scottish services. This is only to be expected of a regime which does not wish Scotland well and is quick to exploit any circumstance which might allow it to make capital of Scottish tax divergence.

I would propose to Mr Hall a simple solution. The Scottish Government should require those who live and work here to pay Scottish tax rates with no exception. If they wish to opt out of that arrangement then they and their families should have no claim on the benefits that Scotland provides like no tuition fees, NHS prescriptions, personal care, dentistry, bus passes. If that is too uncomfortable for them then they should simply move away although I doubt if many would. There would have to be reciprocal "cross-border" arrangements such that everyone is treated equally and there is no option of tax haven status in either country.

I doubt if our current tax divergence will lead to a "Honduran caravan" of the disaffected on the road to England. Scotland is still a great country to live in. For essential reading I would commend Iain Macwhirter’s excellent article on the subject ("'Tartan tax' won't be causing high-earning Scots to go south", The Herald, October 31).

Incidentally, I take it the presumed and currently disaffected Scottish taxpayers have no issue with paying local council tax –or will this be the next issue to overshadow Brexit?

Ian McLaren,

27 Buchanan Drive, Lenzie.

A WONDERFULLY explicit example of the modern Thatcherite outlook of the well-off: we don't care about the community, responsibility, fairness, justice, the common good: we want to wheel and deal to pay as little as possible to our common community. It's us, us, us.

B McKenna,

Overton Avenue, Dumbarton.

SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay failed to complete his social science degree at Glasgow University, thus missing the basic economics courses covering the Laffer Curve, a lack to which his tax policies daily bear witness.

Laffer argued that increasing tax rates beyond a certain point actually results in a revenue fall. This leaves Leftist governments like the SNP and Labour with a problem: is it more important to hammer the successful or help the poor?

The Left derides the theory because Laffer was associated with President Reagan but much the same was said by David Hume, Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes and the brilliant 14th century Tunisian proto-economist Ibn Khaldun.

Rev Dr John Cameron,

10 Howard Place, St Andrews.

AFTER two years of the SNP trying desperately to link Brexit to another push for breaking up the UK, it is telling to hear SNP MP Pete Wishart expressing concerns about how all their political game playing could end up undermining independence ambitions ("SNP leader deflects split in the ranks over People's Vote", The Herald, November 1). Giving us yet another rendition of his angriest man in Scotland routine, Mr Wishart expressed his outrage at the SNP not getting its way to date over Brexit, but feared supporting a People’s Vote on Brexit could backfire on it by setting an expectation of a similar vote over terms for any eventual deal for leaving the UK.

He knows of course that the rosy picture of departing the UK that the SNP would use to try to convince people, might look rather different when the rest of the UK baulks at all the SNP’s usual spread of unreasonable demands. Fortunately for the rest of us, the majority in Scotland still value our positive place in the UK, so another independence referendum might continue to just be something that the SNP uses for political posturing without any intention of turning it into a practical proposition.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.