Letters: SNP has replaced economic reasoning with wishful thinking

Irresponsible behaviour by the Scottish Government sets the agenda, now increasingly accidental rather than planned, without a comprehensive economic plan. The inability to take effective decisions contributes to the absence of clear actions in pursuit of a strategy of balanced growth, targeted growth, whatever. Government is entirely reactive. Beyond its tawdry chant, blaming Westminster for every misfortune or missed outcome, its defined purpose seems to be to throw all funding at spending platforms ameliorating the effects of the pandemic and multi-sourced inflation. In part, it is responsible government, but it is only a single remedial element of the economic solution. Strategy has to go further, and so too fiscal planning.

We have a paradox. On one hand, we have a very controlling government with a habit-forming characteristic of micro-managing, and with increasingly poor outcomes. On the other hand, there is a lack of economic control, demonstrating an avoidance of strategic vision as well as performance incompetence. Far from the "visible hand" of government, we have the experience of the "hidden hand": a scenario where government is harried by problems not anticipated. Normally, even this confusion creates creative solutions, but we don’t currently have a government with sufficient political honesty to own up to and deal with its own failings. Just look at the lack of accountability over the ferry fiasco.

Scotland "invented" political economy, the inter-relationship of economic and political science. However, we appear to have subordinated economic reasoning to political expediency, sometimes even fantasising. The plan for growth doesn’t exist, and the economic case is predicated on wishful fatalism… "once we get independence it will be all right, trust us". Realities are set aside, treated as an abstraction: and we are asked to overlook deterioration in sectors such as education and health, where excellence was previously taken for granted. Scotland even looks shabby, its cities no longer attractive destinations, far less engines of growth.

While no master-plan exists, there is inadequate emphasis on the importance of infrastructure. Scotland’s geography makes shared economic growth a challenge. Yet there is no discussion on the importance of linkages between public investment and growth. We experience serial failings of internal connections, with poor transport linkages to the north and the islands.

We need government with vision and a plan. Bolstered by the Barnett Formula, the Scottish Government has deep knowledge of consequentials, but little understanding of consequence.

Professor William Wardle, Glasgow.

AN EXERCISE IN PASSING THE BUCK

THE tax changes in the Scottish Budget sent a signal to half a million Scots (including many doctors, teachers, train drivers and pensioners) that from now on they are to be considered "well-off" and therefore the ones who will pick up the bill for this SNP Government’s largesse, whether that spending is well intentioned, misguided, or simply wasteful.

John Swinney used his Budget announcement to deliver a diatribe against the UK. There was no recognition of the substantial contribution to Scotland’s finances from the UK. Nor was there any apology for the enormous waste of public funds by Scottish Government spending driven primarily by SNP political calculations rather than genuine need.

Hundreds of millions have been wasted on misguided and mismanaged forays into failed businesses. Equally, despite scarce resources and cost pressures, huge sums have been allocated to universal benefits rather than prioritising those most in need.

In the middle of a cost of living crisis it is understandable that any government would consider raising more taxes. Yet at the same time it is surely only fair that governments demonstrate they are also actively addressing anomalies and misspending in their own expenditure.

John Swinney’s emphasis on trying to pass blame elsewhere and attempts to use his Budget statement to stir grievance at times sounded more like an SNP party political broadcast than a proper financial statement.

Keith Howell, West Linton.

DRIVE UP WAGES, NOT TAXES

HERE we go again with budget proposals which rob Peter to pay Paul by requiring the better-paid to pay higher tax rates to avoid the need to tax the poorly-paid. Politicians describe these measures as fair and even the STUC is now singing from the same hymn sheet. Surely movement in the direction of fairness would be aimed at driving up the wages of the underpaid and driving down the wages of the overpaid.

The banded tax rules perpetuate poverty wages by exempting employers from the need to pay living wages to many of their employees. They also reduce the incentive for young people to engage in education and training for careers requiring higher skill and responsibility levels.

It is particularly jarring to hear trade union leaders focusing their attention on taxes rather than wages. All income from employment should be taxed at the same rate for every individual in the same fashion as expenditure tax (VAT). Taxation of wealth or investment income would be a more socially acceptable target for differentials.

Willie Maclean, Milngavie.

• I THINK that John Swinney has renewed an important idea, a real social contract between the taxpayer and the provision of services. We'll pay more, but it must improve things, that's the deal.

Allan McDougall, Neilston.

TAX HIKE WILL BLOCK RECRUITMENT

THE obvious is always missed by the SNP/Green alliance. The extra tax revenue raised by John Swinney is ostensibly to be put into the NHS to improve the service. So far, so good. However, this same extra tax raised will fairly obviously stop potential higher tax-band workers from filling all the vacant NHS posts as they can get far more money down south due to the ever-increasing tax differentials.

This is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut and wondering why it is only powder that is left.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

COUNCIL TAX DIRTY TRICKS

ONCE again the SNP has figured in some sleight of hand in its money grab, sorry Budget, by giving councils freedom to raise council tax by as much as they like. This then means that it can continue to under-finance local authorities and tell the public "blame your council for the rise don’t blame us.

I wonder where Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney gained their Honours Degrees in dirty tricks.

Ian Balloch, Grangemouth.

TIME TO STAND UP TO ISRAEL

I AM disturbed at the lack of interest and debate over the future of the people who live between the Jordan river and the sea. The next coalition government in Israel will include ultra-nationalist and ultra-religious groupings whose explicitly-stated views are deeply disturbing. A two-state solution must be considered dead and a one-state one seems beyond reach.

As the country with authority over Mandatory Palestine, the UK has a historic responsibility to this region, so where do the British Government and its official opposition stand? Mouthing platitudes about a defunct two-state solution will no longer suffice. If the Israeli coalition government operates as its Jewish Power and Religious Zionism members want, to annex the West Bank, and further suppress or expel the subjugated Palestinians, it will be a catastrophe both for Israel and the wider region, so will western governments finally stand up and act like adults?

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Could the Glasgow Underground have been so much better if bold action had been taken earlier? (Image: Newsquest)

A PIONEER FOR THE UNDERGROUND

I NOTE that a metro system is proposed for the city of Glasgow ("Clyde Metro project must remain a priority", The Herald, December 15, and Letters, December 17), something that I found particularly interesting, as my grandfather, William Ross Bruce (1885-1978), was the engineer responsible for the electrification of the existing Underground between 1931 and 1935.

In 1931 a consultant civil engineer was appointed to consider the viability of modernisation and electrification of the system. After consideration he advised that the cost would be in the region of £1 million. Which was considered too costly to proceed.

At that time my grandfather was overseer of the Subway and, having looked at what was necessary, proposed that a single stretch of line and one coach be electrified as an experiment before undertaking the whole project. He was allocated a budget of £1,200 and the line between Copland Road and Merkland Street was chosen.The conditions were that the line continued to operate for the public during the day and all work be done at night. A test run was completed by the committee in March 1933, and it was agreed that the project should go forward, on a budget of £94,000. By December both circles had been electrified, 10 trains ran in each circle and the stations had been upgraded to remove wooden platforms and install electric lighting. In 1936 my grandfather published a paper for the Institute of Engineers and Shipyards in Scotland entitled “Electrification of the Glasgow District Subway.”

For his own amusement in his spare time my grandfather prepared a plan on a map of the city, taking some of the more outlying stations of the circle loop as a point for other loops reaching out to districts outwith the immediate city, as far as Paisley, Shawlands, Rutherglen, Clydebank, and others where large, new post-war housing estates would be built.

One day his boss came into the office and my grandfather showed him his dream plan for the future of the Underground, which he believed would give Glasgow a system comparable to that of London.

His boss was not amused. He told my grandfather that he was wasting his time with “airy fairy ideas,” that there was no demand for transport from these outlying areas and that my grandfather should find better things to do with his time. He then took the map away and my grandfather never saw it again.

I note that there is currently a lack of certainty about funding a new project ("Bold transport blueprint hit by doubts on funding", The Herald, December 9). In 1935 my grandfather managed to save more than £900,000 on the original quotation. Perhaps if his ideas had been taken forward at that time, using the savings he made, funding for an upgrade today would be considerably less than new outlay.

Eleanor A Young, Stirling.

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