A taxing issue

The Liberal Democrats are not going to be forming a government next Friday. They are not even going to be in coalition with the governing party, which is just as well in Calton's opinion. OK, so the Libdem plan to add a penny onto income tax will not cost low earners a lot, thanks to the fact that the personal allowance has increased massively in recent years. It still seems downright wrong to increase taxes on the lowest paid at all. Those who think it's OK to pay an extra penny tax to fund the NHS obviously are not in the position where every penny counts. They are not those who are going into debt each month to pay the rent. We all want a decent NHS but we should not be asking the poorest workers to pay extra for it. And if the moral argument against taxing the low-paid doesn't work, Tim Farron should consider Gordon Brown - he abolished the 10p tax rate, the tax paid by part-time cleaners went up and Brown ended up out of a job. Willie Rennie stood on the same ticket of raising income tax in the Holyrood election last year - his party was beaten into 5th place by the Greens. Raising the level at which we start to pay income tax has been a huge benefit to minimum wage workers and it is thanks to the Libdems that we have such a policy. They need to learn not to give with one hand and then claw back with the other.

It was the SNP

It seems completely absurd to Calton that an MSP can be jailed for up to a year and still remain an MSP. Whoever dreamt that one up needs their head looked. How can an MSP possibly represent his/her constituents when in prison? If the rules governing MSPs convicted of offences had been properly drafted first time around we would not now have the unedifying spectacle of Bill Walker's brass neck in hanging on to his seat, Willie Rennie's motion to get rid of him and the Presiding Officer scratching around for ways of at least ensuring Walker doesn't get paid if he goes down. Sort it out Trish.

PS. Calton entirely agrees with Willie Rennie that Walker should quit but can't help wondering if the Libdem leader has his eye on the Dunfermline seat - the Holyrood equivalent of the Westminster seat Rennie lost to Thomas Docherty in 2010. (Rennie is currently a list MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife region.) It might have been better if someone else had instigated the motion for Walker to stand down. Somone in the SNP, for instance. After all, it was the SNP who selected him as a candidate.

Plumbing new depths

Alex Salmond plumbed new depths in FMQs today by dragging in the Iraq War in his attempt to deflect attention from the real question of funding for Scottish colleges. Unfortunately Johann Lamont's questions were so wordy the substance got lost in the detail, and, with it, the killer thrust that might have skewered Slippery Salmond. Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie both made a better fist of it by adhering to the philosophy 'less is more', however even they faced an uphill struggle against the SNP majority. It is understandable that opposition MSPs became rather heated yesterday over the question of corrections to figures and ministerial accountability. It seems to be all too easy for Ministers to make a mistake, go back and correct it later (with or without a 'mea culpa' to the chamber) and think that that is the end of the matter. It also seems that there is one rule for the SNP and another for Labour, given that the leader of the SNP expected his apology for his mistake over college funding to be accepted with 'good grace' but the Presiding Officer has not extended the same 'good grace' to Labour MSP Michael McMahon. Having asked for, and accepted, an apology for his wholly inappropriate outburst yesterday, she subsequently decided that it was not sincere enough because it had been tendered too quickly and has suspended him for a day! McMahon's comment was made in the heat of the debate, he apologised immediately, that should have been the end of it. Instead, it is Marwick, if anyone, who has undermined her position by her heavy-handed actions, in Calton's opinion.

Aye right Willie!

According to Willie Rennie, his party is making an impact on Scottish politics. Eh? What on earth gave him that idea? Just what policies have the Scottish Libdems influenced in this parliamentary session? They are having about as much impact on the SNP as a snowflake. (Now Calton is aware that a lot of snowflakes can make quite a snowstorm but 5 MSPs is hardly critical mass.) Alex Salmond has no bother brushing the Libdem leader's questions off at FMQs and with the SNP's majority government Rennie hasn't a snowball's chance of making a difference. His attempt to mobilise moderate England in support of the Union is unlikely to do him any favours up here either. That's the whole point of the independence debate - self-determination for Scotland rather than being told what to do by England. Doh! It seems that only a desire to spite his opponents is stopping Rennie and his party in their slide into self-annihilation.

No need to be rude

Calton is pleased to see that Nick Clegg has backed down from calling opponents of same-sex marriage 'bigots'. Such language is not only offensive to those with genuine and deeply held views but is unhelpful in maintaining a dignified debate on the subject. It would be good if Willie Rennie followed his leader's example in this and also refrained from using such inflammatory terms.

SNP - doing something right

Calton is aware that the SNP Government comes in for the most stick on this blog, partly because they are the government and partly because of their overweening arrogance since they became a majority, however praise where praise is due - at least John Swinney is resisting calls by the CBI and Willie Rennie to privatise Scottish Water.

The youngsters have landed

Some of Calton's young cousins from Norway are flying into Fife to help boost the Kingdom's tourist industry. Sea Eagles have brought £5 million to the economy of Mull and it is hoped that they will do the same in Fife, which could do with a boost after the collapse of first the mining industry and then the electronics industry. The youngsters will be let loose in August so anyone wanting to catch a glimpse of a rare bird should head over to Dunfermline then and camp out in ASDA car park, which is where one of the last lot of eaglets decided to hang out for a while, perching on a spotlight. He was presumably looking for something to get his beak into - pity Willie Rennie didn't happen along at the time.

Keep Scottish Water public

It seems that Willie Rennie has jumped on the Maggie Thatcher privatisation bandwagon, albeit 20 years late. He is urging the Scottish Government to privatise Scottish Water, claiming that the money raised would create 100,000 new jobs. Basically his argument is that the public coffers would benefit by £1.5bn, which could be used on infrastructure projects, and Scottish Water would be able to borrow on the open market to fund its infrastructure improvements. Er - wouldn't it better just to leave things as they are? Has privatising utility companies really brought us the benefits we thought it would? Calton thinks not. Thankfully the Scottish Government also thinks not and plans to keep Scottish Water in public ownership.

What do the Libdems actually stand for?

Willie Rennie is beginning to sound like a one-issue politician, that issue being gay marriage. Not that he could really say anything at FMQs about the local elections after his party got trounced. Is there a connection between the poor performance of the Libdems at the polls and their vocal support of same-sex marriage? Certainly, being champions of gay marriage has not helped boost their popularity and so Calton wonders why Willie keeps harping on about it. Surely there are lots of other things more relevant to the general population in this time of economic uncertainty and hardship? The Libdems are looking increasingly irrelevant and out of touch, not helped by their leader's obsession with minor issues. Does anyone know what they actually stand for these days? Calton does his best to keep up with the political scene in Scotland but would struggle to name a Libdem policy apart from legalising marriage for homosexuals. It seems they really do have a political death wish.

Walter the Sissie gets trounced

In FMQs this week, Willie Rennie (in a good impersonation of Walter the Sissie) whined about the 'serious forces' (an Archbishop and a Cardinal) ranged against him and his fellow-supporters of gay marriage and challenged Wee Eck to stand up to Big Brian (Soapy) Souter. As if that's going to happen. Instead, Wee Eck told Walter where to go in typical bully-boy fashion. Seems like a waste of a question to Calton since the only purpose of it was to try and embarrass the First Minister about yet another of his rich friends. Johann Lamont has already tried to do that and failed, as the ability to be embarrassed is not one of Alex Salmond's more obvious qualities. And let's face it - if the Libdems had as powerful a backer as Souter, would they not try their best to keep him (or her) onside? Walter must be wishing he had a big pal like Soapy to protect him from Eck.

Trump waxes hysterical

You've got to hand it to Trump - he doesn't mince his words. He's now talking of the First Minister becoming known as 'Mad Alex - the man who destroyed Scotland' because of Salmond's insistence on wind power being our salvation. It's hysterical, although not in the way that Willie Rennie meant. What is not so funny is the way in which the Libdem leader insists on playing sidekick to Alex in the latter's aim to cover the Highlands, Islands and Everywhere Else with turbines. Is Calton not right in thinking that, of the four Libdem MSPs Willie has left with him in Holyrood, two have constituencies in the Highlands and Islands? If the windfarms don't bring the 'tens of thousands of jobs' which the Scottish Government is promising, those MSPs had better start planning an alternative career, otherwise they may end up 'spending more time with their families'.

Willie Rennie gets it

When, oh when, are the SNP going to realise that they will not have the full range of fiscal powers that they want if Scotland does not have its own currency? John Swinney is talking through his hat. If he wants 'real independence' he needs to go the whole hog and cut loose from both Westminster and Brussels. We can't have an independent monetary or fiscal policy while tied to sterling or the euro. It just doesn't work. Sharing a currency with another country means agreeing on spending limits, interest rates, acceptable inflation and so on and so on (if we are lucky). If we are unlucky it means having our fiscal policy dictated to us by Germany. If Willie Rennie can grasp that then surely the Finance Secretary can grasp it. No?

Much ado about nothing

Calton listened to the First Minister's speech in Holyrood earlier today and at the end of it, he had to agree with Willie Rennie - it was all 'much ado about nothing'. OK, so we now have a question (although a second one has not been ruled out) and we have agreement that the Electoral Commission will oversee the referendum. We are still getting a bit bogged down in the details rather than concentrating on the 'substantive arguments', as Ruth Davidson calls them. Thankfully, Douglas Fraser has written an excellent article on an independent Scotland's currency options, which confirms the points Calton has made in earlier posts - in particular, Alex where's your bottle.

2012 Wish List - continued

Ruth Davidson has said that nothing is off the table in a review of Scots Tory policies. In the light of that, Calton would like to add the following to his 2012 wishlist:

• The Scottish Conservative Party to provide a credible opposition to Alex Salmond's 'Independence in Europe' policy by putting the case for remaining within the UK and distancing ourselves from Europe. That way, we stand a chance of being able to cut some of the EU red tape which is hampering our businesses. It will also put some clear blue water between the Tories and pro-EU Wilhelm Rennie/Yohann Lamont, thus giving the voter a bit more choice come 2015.
• The Scottish Conservative Party to drop its policy of re-introducing prescription charges. No-one should have to stand in a pharmacy, clutching a much-needed prescription, wondering if they can afford to pay for it, as many hard-working people used to do before the SNP abolished the charges. If money needs to be raised, tax sugary drinks instead.

In your dreams, Willie

Calton thinks that Willie Rennie is indulging in a flight of fantasy in thinking that "liberalism, not nationalism, will dominate Scottish political landscape in the years ahead", given the way the constituency map of Scotland changed from orange to yellow in the 2011 election. If there is a rich seam of liberal values in Scottish history it did not translate into Libdem votes. The jury is still out on whether the Scots voted SNP because they wanted independence or because they wanted a centre-left party and were fed up of Labour. (Calton suspects the latter.) What is certain is that they didn't want a bunch of Libdems who seemed to be prepared to abandon their principles and go in with any party as long as they were in power.

Murdo Fraser has realised that the Scots Tories need to divorce themselves from the English party to stand any chance of gaining more seats at Holyrood. Calton wonders how long it will take our Willie to come to the same conclusion?