SO Derek Mackay, the Scottish Finance Secretary, has seen the light (courtesy of lots of potentially lost votes) and has acted positively on the business rates fiasco (“Mackay bows to rates hike fears with £45m package”, The Herald, February 22). This is to be welcomed. He has, however, missed the other very unfair similar SNP tax rise, that of Council Tax for only bands E, F, G and H. In the interests of fairness he should be having a look at lessening the increases he has imposed there too. That would be a reasonable balancing action. However, the SNP may want to stick with their current policy of only taxing those who don't vote for it.
Dr Gerald Edwards,
Broom Road, Glasgow.
THIS week’s rates volte-face by the SNP, when confronted with a potentially embarrassing rebellion against stinging rises, reminded me OF George Orwell and a quote from his book The Road to Wigan Pier: “This is the inevitable fate of the sentimentalist. All his opinions change into their opposite at the first brush of reality.”
The SNP may want to raise taxes and soak the rich but the reality and evidence is the English Border looks very attractive to those in their sights. The fact is the SNP cannot execute its chosen tax policy.
Andrew Lapping,
Hamilton Capital Partners,
Beacon Building, Glasgow.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel