FOLLOWING the presentation of the Scottish Budget one is left with the regrettable conclusion that the SNP administration is determined to drive the middle class out of Scotland (perhaps the uncharitable view is that they are all No voters, so good riddance). The fiscal assault has manifested itself through a combination of higher stamp duty, higher council tax and now higher income tax than prevails south of the Border (“SNP warned on jobs as Mackay makes high earners pay more tax”, The Herald, December 16). By 2020 the widening differential in the starting threshold for higher rate tax will see a typical middle earner in Scotland on £50,000 a year facing an additional income tax burden of nearly £1,000 a year compared to the situation south of the Border. For a couple each on the same salary this equates to £2,000 a year and viewed in the context of a potential long-term career move to Scotland or remaining in Scotland the penalty equates to nearly £50,000 over 25 years.

These are not minor or unambitious tweaks to the income regime as many commentators have suggested. Faced with such an egregious income tax regime why would any ambitious professional move to Scotland, why would any job creating entrepreneur wish to create a new business north of the Border and why would an ambitious, well-educated Scot wish to stay? The damage to the Scottish economy is going to be very considerable and enduring, the current disturbing gulf between underperformance of the Scottish economy relative to England can only widen as a consequence of the SNP tax proposals.

We should remember that £50,000 a year is not a high salary, many professionals in the public sector earn above this level and many aspire to earn at this level and above over the course of their career. Ambition is now being taxed as punitively as income. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of these proposals is that they lack any intellectual rigour and fail abysmally to meet any test of being progressive. The higher tax burden will be faced equally by those earning £50,000 or £100,000 or any salary above. Additionally there will be an absurd marginal tax rate of 52 per cent in Scotland between the higher rate threshold in Scotland up to the higher rate threshold in England due to the impact of increases in National Insurance. A much fairer approach would have been to have retained the same tax thresholds as England but increased the 40 per cent rate to say 41 per cent. The higher rate could easily be designed to raise the same additional revenue but would have been genuinely progressive so that an earner on £100,000 a year would indeed have paid more of the new tax burden than an earner on £50,000.

I have long believed in independence for the Scottish nation but in my view the population will never vote for it unless they can be reassured that the Scottish economy can at a minimum match and in time outperform the economy in England. Confidence in this ambition is rapidly eroding in the face of tax powers that are designed to punish hard work and ambition.

Raymond Hall,

The Firs,

Gartness Road, Killearn, Glasgow.

I FAIL to understand why the SNP has spent so much time trying for increased powers for the Scottish Parliament, and is trying to create new arguments for a second independence referendum, if is not prepared to use the powers it has now been given.

Quite rightly, higher rate taxpayers should not be given a tax cut at a time when working tax credits are being cut or frozen and there is an enormous budget deficit. But extra tax is £314 at most, the cost of a couple of good meals out for some, raising only £120 million for the Government. The Scottish Tories are really scraping the barrel when they say that people are going to up sticks and leave Scotland because of this.

Instead of allowing councils to raise council tax by up to three per cent, which means even the poorest household will have to pay more, they should have had the courage to raise the top rate of tax to 50 per cent, and put at least a penny on the basic rate for those earning more than £20,000.

The SNP is willing to have councils take the flack for increasing taxes but are not prepared to do anything themselves as the Scottish Government. It seems frightened of raising taxes for party political reasons. What a way to run the country.

Phil Tate,

Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh.

As I listened to the Finance Secretary delivering his budget on Thursday in a tone which was best described by Tom Gordon, as like a Tannoy in a bucket (“Mackay plays role of dull bank manager as SNP looks to present itself as steady hand”, The Herald, December 16), it was impossible not to also notice the exaggerated hand-clapping of the Education Secretary, John Swinney.

I am unsure whether his hand clapping was to alert those in the back rows when to clap but I thought all he was missing were a pair of cymbals, a red waistcoat and a fez.

James Kelly,

4, Charles Drive, Larbert.

IT is interesting to note claims by the Scottish Conservatives and various commentators that Scotland will become the "highest taxed part of the UK" due to it not replicating the UK Treasury's tax cut for higher earners. This means that those taxpayers in this bracket will pay an extra £314 more than those in the rest of the UK.

It should be remembered, however, that this relates only to income tax and when it comes to other taxes Scotland fares considerably more favourably than the rest of the UK. For example, Average Band D Council Tax in England is £1,530, compared with £1,149 north of the Border. While the average water and sewerage charge in England is £389, in Scotland it is £351.

In addition to this, what tends to be forgotten are Tory “stealth tax” proposals, including prescription charges and university tuition fees. Prescription charges, currently £8.40 in England, are highly regressive and a tax on the sick, and the imposition of university fees of £6,000 would see a graduate on an average full-time salary paying 4p more in tax on every pound.

In Scotland, Air Passenger Duty is also set to be cut by the end of this parliamentary term and business rates have also been cut.

The key issue here is not just to examine income tax alone, but to look at what impact the burden of all taxes is. When one looks at the bigger picture it is clear that it is the Conservatives whose "stealth taxes" would become deeply damaging economically and it is more than little disingenuous to describe Scotland as the highest tax part of the UK.

Alex Orr,

Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.

MICHAEL Kelly (Letters, December 16) demonstrates a highly selective memory, claiming that “for decades our political energy has been directed exclusively at the constitution to the neglect of issues that might actually make a difference to our economic performance”.

He fails to appreciate the contribution, made by the failure of economic policies, to the current focus on the constitution. Was it not the failure to successfully protect or replace indigenous industries in Scotland – places like the Clydeside shipyards, Singers, Ravenscraig, Linwood and so (if you want a longer list try Letter From America by the Proclaimers) – that disappeared like “sna’ aff a dyke” in the 1970s and 1980s, leaving a line of hollowed-out communities, that initiated interest in changing the constitution?

Nor does he demonstrate much in the way of historical perspective. The fact is that since 1945, Labour has been in power at Westminster for 30 of those 71 years (approximately 42 per cent) and yet the Scottish economy is in the situation that is today. In contrast for much of that time, the SNP MPs at Westminster, if there were any, could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Likewise, at Holyrood, the first two governments (or Executives as they were known) were a coalition of Labour and Liberal Democrats. It is only since 2007 – and on that occasion as a minority government, as now – that the SNP has exercised power at Holyrood. Only in 2015 did it achieve a quantum change in their number of MPs, winning all but three of the Westminster seats in Scotland, making his claim that “the blame must be placed firmly on the SNP” quite risible.

But the most significant defect in Dr Kelly’s argument is when he writes that Labour should sit out the current constitutional debate to develop policies to reinvigorate the “private sector that can generate the income and wealth that will balance our economy and encourage its growth”. The problem of course is that had Labour succeeded in doing this 30 years ago, or more, we might not have turned our attention to the constitution and the possibility of achieving more as an independent and sovereign nation.

Other contents of his letter, though – “Begging bowl Scotland” or “the heresy that preaches independence as the road to prosperity” – suggest strongly that Dr Kelly would find it very difficult to contemplate even the possibility of independence, no matter the evidence.

Alasdair Galloway,

14 Silverton Avenue, Dumbarton.

THE Britannia Two Step would be a more apt dance for Michael Kelly (Letters, December 16), to allude to, rather than the “constitutional Gay Gordons”. Three participants in the dance, with one controlling all the moves, pulling the other two sometimes to the right sometimes to the left - rather like the situation Scotland and Wales find themselves in vi a vis England.

Norway Finland, Denmark and Sweden are Independent countries, with about the same population as Scotland.

They are consistently among the countries with the highest standard of living in the world. Does Mr Kelly imagine for a moment that they would give up "the heresy of independence" for a fling in his Unionist dance?

Willie Douglas,

252 Nether Auldhouse Road, Glasgow.

MICHAEL Kelly calls on the opposition parties to stop their "constitutional Gay Gordons", but Mr Kelly is dancing on thin ice when he condemns the SNP's record in government because the choreography is pretty impressive. Ranging from free quality child care to free school meals to free university tuition; from free medical prescriptions to cleaner hospitals and more doctors, nurses and dentists; from increased numbers of police officers to the lowest crime figures for more than 40 years; from freezing council tax for almost a decade and scrapping bridge tolls, to saving Prestwick airport and Lanarkshire's steel industry from closure.

It was those achievements and many more which saw the voters quickstep to the polling stations and the SNP waltz to a third term in office last May, leaving the out-of-step opposition parties wilting like a bunch of wallflowers.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.