Sep
09, 2014 11:238 OPINION BY ANNMCKECHIN
ANN
McKECHIN puts forward her view that the economic policies of the SNP will only
drive an even greater divide between the have and have-nots should Scotland
vote Yes.
SCOTLAND'S
future will be decided in just a few days’ time when voters across the country
go to the polls.
It’s
clear that voters want change – they want to see more jobs paying decent wages
and offering security; they want affordable housing; they want a social care
system that is fit for purpose; and they want an energy market that works for
consumers not the profits of big energy.
The
Scottish National Party has been keen to persuade voters that breaking off from
the rest of the UK would create a ‘northern light’ for social justice – a
Scotland that is more just, more humane and more socially democratic. But their
message is deliberately high in emotion but lacking in substance.
However,
a Scotland which followed the policies outlined in the SNP’s white paper and
ended the system of pooling and sharing resources across the UK would quickly
find income and wealth would be more unequally distributed than in the country
they wish to break up. SNP tax policies will astonish all those used to hearing
the claim that, from the day after independence, it would recreate the social
democratic state that London has left behind.
Let’s
look at the recent evidence. The SNP has refused to commit an independent
Scotland to Labour’s proposal for a 50p top rate of tax. It has also refused to
support a new top band of council tax. The First Minister keeps telling top
business leaders that he is not planning to change the rates of income tax or
business from those that apply currently across the UK.
First
Minister reportedly taunted the Westminster government over whether an
independent Scotland should take on its share of the national debt, saying:
“What are they going to do – invade?”
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