Those of you who live in the rest of the UK will have no idea what a relief it is for us Scots to have some real politics to deal with at last. Scottish Labour’s announcement today that it wants to raise income tax for everybody in Scotland is terrific – simply because it means that this year’s election will be a real contest about real policies.
For the first time in years we are going to get an election which is not about the constitution. The tax powers which Scotland is going to get in April are fairly inflexible. A lock-step has been imposed which means that, if you want to raise one of the rates, you have to raise them all.
Kezia Dugdale, Labour’s Scottish leader, has decided that raising income tax is more important than the problems this causes, so she has just announced she will raise all the income tax rates in Scotland by 1p in the pound if she gains power in May.
The Liberal Democrats actually believe in the same thing but they are so small and ineffectual now that, even though they announced their tax-raising plans last week, no-one really paid any attention. The Conservatives have promised to lower taxes, if at all possible and, if not, to make sure Scottish taxes do not rise above the rates for England. SNP leaders have yet to unveil their plans but are expected to back the current tax rates.
So, at last, Scots will face a real, political choice this May. Labour and the Liberal Democrats are on the left, promising to put up taxes and spend more on public services, the SNP is in the middle, promising to do nothing while the Tories are on the right, pledging to reduce taxes, if they can.
Now cynics might suggest that Labour and the Liberal Democrats are merely posturing, that they have no chance of winning the election so they can say what they like. To a certain extent that is true but Labour strategists, in particular, know this matters because it is about perception.
They are doing this to show their socialist credentials to traditional, left-leaning Labour voters. They need to bring them back to the fold and they have decided that the way to do that is with a strident tax-and-spend agenda. However, this approach assumes, firstly, that the SNP is vulnerable on the left and secondly, that Scotland is ready for a high-tax agenda. I’m not sure the strategy is correct on either count.
The SNP has succeeded by appealing to voters across the political spectrum, by making the old left-right split almost irrelevant north of the border. Its arguments about ‘standing up for Scotland’ and independence have transcended the old divides. So Labour may be trying to outflank the SNP on a battleground that no longer exists.
Then there is the high-tax approach itself. Scots, even those working-class, Tory-hating Scots Labour tries to woo every election, are not as pro-tax as Ms Dugdale imagines they are. They do not like the Tories, that is true, but they also do not like scroungers, layabouts and benefit cheats and believe everyone should work and work hard for a living.
Thus the idea of paying taxes to feather-bed the services provided to others may not go down as well as Labour thinks it will. Many people in Scottish politics still remember John Swinney’s attempt to win an election pledging a rise in income tax, back in 1999, which ended in ignominious defeat for the SNP. That campaign is etched into the consciousness of the SNP leadership which is precisely why they are unlikely to suggest doing anything quite as stupid again.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, really are willing to do something that stupid. And while the Tories and the Nationalists are rubbing their hands in glee at this move, the rest of us are just delighted that we can discuss real politics once again – and not just the constitution.
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