Alabama Council might be a more appropriate name than Aberdeenshire Council ("Poorest face punishment after voting in referendum", The Herald, September 30.).
The indecent haste with which they announced plans to pursue the previously disenfranchised for having the temerity to register to vote is reminiscent of the techniques used in the southern states to discourage blacks from voting. The reason the young and the poor are picked on time and again to make the economic sacrifices is because they don't vote and aren't organised.
One of the great achievements of the Yes campaign was to involve many of the disenfranchised. And it was the Yes side that did this. The No campaign was happy to have low participation among the poor. If you have had irregularities in your income tax records, it doesn't inhibit you from registering to vote and, of course, it is the better-off who do the income tax fiddles with the help of their accountants.
If you've had insecure housing tenure, multiple occupancy, personal and family breakdown, breadline incomes and all the other problems that result in people missing payments and getting into debt, that is all the more reason why we need to support people in voting so we are not just getting the preferences of the comfortable and elderly.
I am sure Yes campaigners will be organising a legal and welfare support service to help people whose determination to vote may result in punitive sanctions.
Isobel Lindsay,
9 Knocklea Place, Biggar.
The Herald's headline regarding the situation of those newly registered voters now liable to arrears of tax is potentially misleading. The majority of our poorest have faithfully paid their taxes, while there are many instances of the rich failing to do so. Financial standing is rarely a reliable indicator of personal integrity.
Allan C Steele,
22 Forres Avenue, Giffnock.
All local councils should use whatever means they can to recover unpaid council tax. Indeed it would be a dereliction of duty not to pursue this. I must agree with Aberdeen councillor Alan Donnelly and Cosla in this instance. Providing the sources used to recover debts are within the legal framework no-one has any right to complain.
Michael Morrod,
3 The Shores, Skelmorlie.
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