The politics of envy

The devolved administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff are blaming the UK Government for forcing them to increase tax to balance the books. But their fiscal choices reveal more about their own priorities than those of London.

In Scotland, the SNP/Green coalition has sought to fill a £1.5 billion deficit by increasing personal taxation, with the finance minister, Shona Robison, again targeting higher earners. Those earning between £75,000 and £125,000 will have to pay around £5,000 more income tax than if they lived in England, while anyone earning more than around £125,000 will be subject to a new top tax rate of 48p and pay even more. 

Business groups fear that such punitive rates will scare off the talent required to boost Scottish growth, but the SNP is an economically Left-wing party that has embraced the politics of envy. The Scottish government’s other choices, meanwhile, reflect basic political incompetence. 

Ms Robison’s gimmick of freezing council tax to woo middle-class voters came badly unstuck when councils warned that they might run out of money and cut services without an immediate injection of £330 million. An emergency “summit” with council leaders has been fixed for this morning after she offered only £140 million. 

A thriving economy is also not high on the list of priorities for Labour politicians in Wales with many businesses now effectively facing a swingeing increase in rates to help pay for the country’s struggling NHS. 

This will lead the rest of the UK to wonder whether the economy will, similarly, take a back seat if a Labour government wins the next general election. We have been warned.