Taxing rich never on agenda when politicians talk 'tough'

The National

7 hours ago

FOLLOWING the Labour government's partial U-turn on the winter fuel payment for pensioners, the First Minister John Swinney has announced that no pensioner in Scotland will receive less than they would if they lived in England or Wales.
Shortly after taking office, Labour announced its deeply unpopular decision to axe the universal winter fuel payment for pensioners. Starmer introduced the measure in a bid to demonstrate to his corporate backers that he was prepared to take 'tough' decisions, which of course always translate in practice to beating up the poor and the vulnerable. Taxing the rich is never on the agenda when politicians talk about being 'tough'. While it may have bought him brownie points with the City of London, the move was electorally suicidal and generated massive public anger.
The decision cost the Scottish Government £140-160 million in expected Barnett consequentials.
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Last week, faced with tanking in the polls and growing unrest on the Labour back benches, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves (below) announced a partial U-turn. The universal winter fuel payment would not be restored, but the UK Government will make the payment to all pensioners living in households with an annual income of less than £35,000. All those people born before 22 September 1959 would receive £200, rising to £300 if they are in a household with someone over 80.
(Image: Owen Humphreys/PA) In Scotland, the Winter Fuel Payment which was introduced in order to mitigate Labour's cuts was guaranteed at £100 per household. When Reeves announced her U-turn, the Scottish Government was once again left in the dark about the financial implications for the Scottish budget. Responsibility for the equivalent benefit in Scotland is devolved.
Last week, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said people on pension credit and under 80 would get £203, and people on pension credit and over 80 would get £305.
However on Monday morning, speaking at the hospital which everyone in Glasgow knows is properly called the Southern General, the First Minister said that the Scottish Government would match the payments being made elsewhere in the UK, and said the Scottish Government will set out more details on how the UK and Scottish payments would be matched up in 'due course'.
He said: "The Winter Fuel Payment kept some of the most vulnerable in society warm in winter.
"It was always the right thing to do, but it was also the smart thing to do, smart because it kept people out of hospital in their own home. It kept them warm and well, and then it was gone."
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He insisted that axing the payment was a false economy that was never going to save the government any money, noting the links between cold weather and increased NHS bills, particularly when it comes to pensioners.
The Chancellor's partial U-turn will result in an estimated £120 million in funding for the Scottish Government. This will leave a shortfall of £20 to £40 million which the Scottish Government will have to find elsewhere in the Scottish budget. Anas Sarwar will then stand up at FMQs and denounce this as SNP cuts.
The BBC has reported that Scottish rubbish will have to be exported to England. The Scottish government is banning "black bag" waste from being buried in landfill from 31 December but acknowledges that there are not currently enough incinerators to meet the extra demand. The BBC has reported that up to 100 lorry loads a day of Scottish waste could be sent to England until there is sufficient incinerator capacity in Scotland, which is estimated to take three years.
It seems fair enough to me. England takes Scotland's oil, gas, and renewable energy. Scotland takes England's nuclear weaponry and if Starmer has his way, Scotland will have to take England's radioactive waste too. It's only reasonable that England takes Scotland's crisp packets, pizza boxes and sweetie wrappers, unlike England's nuclear waste, that won't still be a contaminant 50,000 years from now - by which time Labour still won't have abolished the House of Lords.
Union flag as a symbol of sectarianism
The Tories have been engaged in one of their periodic bouts of pearl clutching after a primary school head in East Renfrewshire suggested that the Union flag was linked to 'potentially offensive or sectarian messaging'.
Party leader Russell Findlay (Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)They're not wrong though. Whenever there's a fascist rally or an Orange Walk, Union flags are prominently displayed. An Orange Walk without a Union flag is not an Orange Walk – it's just a few badly dressed bigots sauntering to a drunken hate fest. Especially since the independence referendum of 2014, the Union flag has been intensely political in Scotland. It is disingenuous in the extreme to pretend that displaying the Union flag in Scotland is politically neutral or that it does not have connotations of sectarianism or taking sides in Scotland's constitutional debate.
But where there's a Tory, there's a British nationalist in search of something to feel victimised by.
Russell Findlay, the current branch manager of the Tories in Scotland took to social media to harrumph: 'This is what happens when the SNP's toxic nationalism infects schools and councils. Our country's flag is NOT 'offensive or sectarian'.'
The only reason so many people in Scotland feel uncomfortable with the Union flag is due to the toxic Anglo-British nationalism of the Tories and Labour. Both parties were more than happy to play the sectarian card in the recent Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse by election, with a Labour candidate who made big play of his links to Rangers and a Tory candidate who is a member of the Orange Order.