Letter: Tax conundrum

The SNP's "Penny for Scotland" campaign from the 1990s demonstrated the electoral unpopularity of tax rises, hence the reluctance of any major party to use the Scottish variable rate (SVR) powers to raise the rate of income tax.

HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) request for a substantial sum of money to retain the infrastructure necessary to levy the SVR would in normal circumstances have been fertile ground for SNP grievance and politicking.

However, perhaps the reason they bottled this is because creating a fuss would have given the impression they wanted to resurrect a "Penny (or two, or three) for Scotland", which would have been suicidal, particularly when compared with their council tax freeze.

And even if the Nationalists only wanted to retain the powerfor symbolic reasons, an opportunistic opposition would have portrayed things otherwise, or at least accused them of squandering money for reasons of vanity.

To that extent I partly disagree with Eddie Barnes' analysis (24 November). He suggests that the Scottish government kept the issue quiet because "chest-beating" MSPs would have insisted that the administration fee be paid to HMRC.

However, I suspect a majority of MSPs wouldn't have, because they would have been wary of the no-win situation faced by the Nationalists - portrayed as either tax raisers or spendthrifts.

Stuart Winton

Hilltown

Dundee