Letter: Retrograde tax
The coalition government appears to have achieved its objective of cowing the population into believing massive cuts are inevitable. This zeal has been passed on to the Scottish Parliament, where cuts are now being targeted at essential services ("Call for £20 patient fee to see NHS doctor", Scottish Perspective, 10 September).
Do we really want to create an infrastructure for cash collection, means testing, appeals procedures and refunds etc within local surgeries rather than being honest and setting the income tax rate appropriately? Like the TV licence fee, a significant amount of the new tax would be lost in administration.
Given the state of the Scottish nation's health, and the early signs of success of proactive campaigns such as the "no smoking ban", it is incomprehensible why we would risk disconnecting the vulnerable members of our population from their GPs. We need to intervene quickly to dismiss this retrograde tax.
MICHAEL N CROSBY
Muiravonside
By Linlithgow, West Lothian