Failing at maths

I sometimes worry about the politicians. Ruth Davidson proudly trumpets the fact that she has just discovered that only 12 per cent of households are “net contributors” to Scotland, where the taxes they pay outweigh the benefits they receive (your report, 8 October).

Part of her solution to this, which has been a Tory mantra since I was a boy, is massively to reduce – maybe halve – the size of the public sector.

But hang on a minute: more than 75 per cent of the income tax paid in Scotland is paid by those working in that self-same public sector, who are trapped in PAYE and haven’t access to the tax avoidance or minimising schemes available to their counterparts in the private sector.

There are no jobs for those shed by the public services to go to, and the country is running about as many self-employed people as an economy this size can support – so when Ruth succeeds in reducing that “contributing” 12 per cent of households to, say, 7 per cent or 8 per cent, just where does she think the money to run the country is going to come from?

When our Celtic forebear reached out a hand to draw a picture of Ouroborus, the snake consuming itself tail-first, he was prophesying the rise of the Holyrood politician talking finance. God help us all.

David Fiddimore

Calton Road

Edinburgh

I agree with Ewan Crawford’s point (Perspective, 9 October) that the universal benefits ­debate should not be rooted in targeting high-earning lawyers or judges. Instead, we need to have a much wider debate about what we mean by universal services, what our priorities are for them and what we can afford.

The fact is that under successive Scottish Governments, 
poverty and inequality have been getting worse and, in a time when we have limited resources, it is surely an option that we should target the funds we have at those in most need of them instead of spreading what we have too thinly.

For the future the only meaningful response is to look at the bigger picture, including how people are taxed.

We need to have a full and frank debate about universal benefits; what public services we need, how to pay for them and how much of the cost should be met, whether by a contribution as per the Scandinavian system or – horrors of horrors – a progressive taxation system.

John Downie

Scottish Council for 
Voluntary Organisations

Mansfield Place

Edinburgh