by Bill Heaney
Taxes are too high in Scotland. Scots are forced, and not asked, to pay £1.7 billion extra a year through SNP income tax rises, yet they see a wasteful Government that is utterly incapable of fixing public services, which only get worse, according to Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay.
He told the Holyrood parliament this week: “As demonstrated once again today by the revelation that bed blocking costs the national health service up to £0.5 billion every year, the SNP’s list of costly failures is truly endless.
“Struggling workers, families and businesses all deserve a break. That is why we are calling on John Swinney to reduce the crippling financial burden by cutting income tax in next week’s budget. Will he do so?”
First Minister John Swinney told him: “In relation to public services, recent data that came out on Tuesday demonstrates that, for the sixth month in a row, long waits in our national health service are falling. In some circumstances, they have fallen by 30 per cent since the start of the financial year, due to the plan and the resources that I have put in place.
“Long waits are coming down, just as I promised they would do, for patients the length and breadth of our country. The investment that we are making in public services is delivering better outcomes for people in our country.
“The delayed discharge report from Audit Scotland today demonstrates that it is necessary for us to work collaboratively with local authorities to tackle that issue. The good work on that is highlighted in the Audit Scotland report.
“Of course, this Government recognised the need for that intervention in the national care service proposals, but the Conservatives and others would not support those proposals when they came to the Parliament.
“The last thing that I will say to Mr Findlay about his tax cut proposals is that, yes, his proposals involve cutting tax, but they also involve cutting public spending by £1 billion—and he never answers the question about that.”
Russell Findlay, pictured right, persisted: “When it comes to the state of the NHS in Scotland under the SNP, John Swinney’s selective statistics do not cut it. Patients know the reality. They see the reality with their own eyes.“John Swinney thinks that he can take more and more from workers and businesses and, at the same time, spend more and more on benefits. The SNP’s annual benefits bill of £7 billion is on course to reach £10 billion a year. State benefits are a vital safety net for those in need, but that bill is unaffordable, unfair and unsustainable. The only way that John Swinney can pay for it is by hiking taxes even more.
“However, there is another way. We believe that workers should keep more of their hard-earned money—and that that will help to increase prosperity by growing the economy.
“John Swinney could cut people’s taxes by tackling the out-of-control benefits bill in the budget—but does he have the bravery to do so?”
“When it comes to social security investment, this Government has invested in measures such as the Scottish child payment, which means that child poverty is falling in Scotland when it is rising in other parts of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, we have child poverty levels that are at 30-year lows, as a consequence of our intervention. I know that Mr Findlay does not care about child poverty.”