I agree with Allan C Steele that the majority of our poorest will have faithfully paid their taxes and that there are many instances of the rich failing to do so ( Letters, October 1 ).
And I remember the "can pay won't pay" stickers in front windows in 1989/90 over the Community Charge (Poll Tax) in households neither rich nor poor where on their own admission the occupants could afford to pay what was legally due, but chose not to.
I appreciate that in many cases this was as a matter of principle but if they have now exercised their democratic right to vote they should accept the responsibility that goes with that and in fairness to the poor who did pay they should now be required to stump up.
Else, having your cake and eating it comes to mind.
R Russell Smith,
96 Milton Road,
Kilbirnie.
According to the Electoral Reform Society ("Chasing up voter debts 'will harm' democracy", The Herald, October 1), "we should be doing everything we can to sustain people's passion and energy for politics". Paraphrased slightly, a similar sentiment applies to those who are attempting to recoup the debts from numerous within our society who have failed to do so over a period of years.
John Macnab,
175 Grahamsdyke Street,
Laurieston, Falkirk.
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 hereComments are closed on this article