Thinendofthe taxationwedge

Dear Editor, In March community charge statements will drop through letterboxes.

And for those in bandzs E,F, G and H, there will be an additional one per cent increase the council is being forced to implement but which will go straight to the Holyrood government.

It will not be used to fund what locally-elected politicians regard as local priorities but to fund the SNP government’s National Attainment Fund.

Money raised from East Kilbride residents will be used to fund other local authorities.

I don’t object to more funds for education if they will reverse the worrying decline in standards during the SNP’s tenure in Holyrood.

But if education is a national priority then funds should be raised nationally, not only from council tax payers.

In England there is speculation that the Conservative government is to use the same policy to get those who pay the community charge to be the cash cow used to raise money for social care.

So the SNP and the Conservatives both see those who pay the community charge as a new source of taxation that they take responsibility for spending, not raising.

The phrase ‘tartan tories’ comes to mind.

Like most new sources of taxation, I can only think this is the thin edge of a large wedge. Angus Morrison East Kilbride