FURTHER to the correspondence about Scottish taxation (Letters, March 13) we should not overlook the spurning of the constitution.
Scottish Tories should not torment themselves in the way they do over the question of soldiers posted to Scotland being subject to the new tax arrangements introduced by the Scottish Government with the approval of the parliament (“MoD move to stop tax rise", The Herald, March 12).
When Scottish Conservative MP Douglas Ross was interviewed on Good Morning Scotland recently, he did not seem over-concerned about the financial plight of the troops – the only message he wished to convey was that Scotland was now the highest-taxed area in the UK, which he managed to repeat again and again. But it was the Tories who were complicit in the introduction of the new powers. Given that they are not proposing to reduce tax in Scotland, we have to wonder why on earth the powers were necessary at all. So why did they not veto the measure?
To the embarrassment of Mr Ross, the interviewer persisted in asking why the Conservative Government at Westminster had deprived the troops, with successive pay increases over seven years of only one per cent, and that that was a suitable case for treatment.
Were they to gain power at Holyrood, would they restore the former tax regime back to the same level as for the rest of the UK? And, if not, why not?
Douglas R Mayer,
76 Thomson Crescent, Currie, Midlothian.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here