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.