Readers' letters: SNP's years of council tax freezes are coming home to roost

So council tax across Scotland is set to rise massively above inflation, in some cases in excess of ten per cent (Scotsman, 21 February).

Understandable since, though SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison describes the Scottish central government contribution to councils as “fair”, ever growing social care demands on local government budgets suggests the opposite and have left councils with little choice but to require more from council tax-payers.

True, increases to Westminster’s Barnett Formula haven’t entirely covered higher public sector national insurance bills, but this surely indicates that Holyrood needs to take a hard look at the size of its non-private sector payrolls, bloated proportionally compared to England.

Shona Robison has described the Scottish Government's contribution to councils as 'fair'. Picture: Robert Perry/PA Wire

Yet the heart of the problem rests wholly with SNP policy since 2007. Ever focused on populist vote-chasing, council tax has been frozen by the nationalists almost every year since 2007 depriving councils of funds, while support from central government hasn’t anywhere nearly met the shortfall – leaving us now with higher local taxes and public services under threat.

The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that Scottish council tax bills need to rise by much higher levels than even this year’s increases to preserve core service provision – and Scots have 18 years of SNP financial mismanagement to thank for this.

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Scottish Borders

PFI bills staggering

A very timely debate was heard in the Scottish Parliament on January 20; timely because our local authorities are currently announcing increases to council tax.

This debate brought forward by SNP MSP Kenny Gibson came at just the right time to remind Scotland’s council tax-payers of exactly what we are paying for. Some years ago the Conservatives at Westminster proposed using private finance to procure public contracts. This was taken forward and enacted on by a Labour government at Westminster. Many local authorities in Scotland lifted this idea and ran with it. Mr Gibson went on to highlight that between 2006-07 and 2022-23, the cost of PPP/PFI contracts for our local authorities in Scotland was a staggering £14.174 billion – staggering yes, when we consider our local authorities still don’t own those projects and properties. During this debate it was also highlighted that in Inverclyde Council, 52p of every pound paid in council tax goes to meet the cost of the PPP/PFI contracts.

Thankfully, on taking control at Holyrood in 2007, the SNP rightly put a stop to PPP/ PFI projects in Scotland, recognising that those very projects have cost our councils dearly and are not best value for the public purse.

Catriona C Clark, Falkirk

US betrayal

Now that every high office in the United States is infested with professional liars, they are all singing the Kremlin songsheet.

Whatever grip Putin has on Trump, we can only hope it blows up publicly and soon. Even then,Trump is destroying American institutions as fast as he can. This may be in order to make him and his rattlesnakes difficult to supplant.

Britain and her neighboring free countries and friends are already betrayed, as revealed by the breathtaking slanders uttered against us and against Ukraine by the President and Vice-President of the US.

Our liberty stands or falls on the soil of Ukraine.

We must rearm quickly, drastically, expensively. That is not a sheer loss but an investment in our own powerful industries. We should never have thrown away our manufacturing markets in the first place.

Our sisters, brothers and neighbours are free people like us, who speak French, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Finnish, Italian, Polish, Latvian, twoscore languages more.

We must all rearm in depth and scale, and never rely on any distant power again, militarily or industrially.

Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland

What price peace?

President Trump’s comments that Ukraine started the war, not Russia, and rubbishing President Zelensky as a dictator and a “moderately successful comedian” are no surprise. Trump is acting like the comedian and Zelensky the diplomat. While Ukraine surprised the West by taking back half its lost territory, Ukraine and Russia are now like two tired boxers slugging out the final round, with Ukraine facing losing on points.

The US has ripped up the diplomatic playbook of aiding invaded European countries and Ukraine can’t rely solely on a fractured Europe turning to populist governments. Starmer’s bit part role is that of a bridge between the US and Europe including a petulant France, a distracted Germany and a disinterested Italy. Pledging thousands of UK peacekeepers requires achieving his so far illusive 2.5 per cent target of GDP spending on defence.

Zelensky should have looked at last year’s Chinese peace plan. Since then Ukraine has lost ground and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. Negotiating anything more favorable to Ukraine than China’s deal is doubtful, unless Trump imposes his narcissistic personality to appeal to Putin’s ego to get concessions, but right now all he seems interested in is Ukrainian mineral rights. Whatever the outcome, relations between the US and Europe have been set back years.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Trump’s plan

The Trump peace plan won’t stop the slaughter in Ukraine. If implemented, it will just change the way Ukrainians die. Instead of being killed by a bullet from the front it will be from a shot to the back of the head

Henryk Belda, Edinburgh

Musk’s man

Russell Findlay is without a doubt a skilled politician. Humiliated in the morning by yet another Tory councillor joining Reform, he comes out in the afternoon with a policy thunderbolt: namely Scotland needs Elon Musk and DOGE (Scotsman, 20 February).

Well said Mr Findlay, that’s exactly what Scotland needs. A far-right billionaire who endorses the AfDin Germany and who praises Italy’s Prime Minister as a “precious genius”. Musk says on Germany: “Only the AfD can save Germany”. He doesn’t ,of course say what Germany needs saved from, but apparently it needs saving.

Expect Russell Findlay to try to exploit the rift between Farage and Musk and for Tory leaflets to say in future “Only Elon Musk can save Scotland”! If that doesn’t stop Tories defecting to Reform then frankly nothing will.

Alexander Lunn, Edinburgh

Reform’s UK’s rise

Reform UK's staggering popularity is surely explained by disillusionment rather than conviction, with both Labour and the Tories allowing them to set the agenda, on immigration in particular.

We in Scotland have always taken comfort from dismissing Reform UK as an English nationalist party, with its leader, Nigel Farage, a quintessential Englishman, wary of even setting foot in Scotland.

Therefore, it comes as a bit of a shock to learn that Reform UK might well win 15 seats in next year's Scottish Parliamentary election. Make no mistake, this is a lurch towards the far-right politics of hate which is increasingly dominating transatlantic and European politics. We must pause, think and be careful of what we wish for.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Labour flip-flops

Anas Sarwar has led his Scottish Labour troops into a quagmire of confusion and irrelevance in a short few months.

It is staggering beyond belief that he and his sidekick Jackie Baillie now state that Scottish Labour should have voted against the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in December 2022. However just over a year ago (17 February, 2023) when speaking to the PA news agency, he noted that the Scottish Government was wrong to reject amendments to the proposed Bill but his party was right to back the legislation. This despite the Labour amendments being defeated including the one to protect single-sex spaces.

Now, just a year later, he flip-flops again with his party all over the place. His supposed leadership qualities have been found to be sadly lacking and I am afraid the electorate will come to the same conclusion at the next Scottish election. He – along with a substantial contribution from Keir Starmer – will be responsible for the SNP being re-elected to cause yet more damage to Scotland.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

What kept you?

It was beyond disappointing that Labour and the Lib Dems have for so long been equivocal about single-sex spaces and matters concerning gender. They have generally sided with the SNP on the matter and therein may be the cause of their hugely disappointing fall-off in support.

However, they seem to have at last wakened up and grasped that chance and isolated their nationalist/Green opponents, who are still appearing to support a cause that defies reality and cannot ever be won.

Why did it take so long?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Grim prospect

Watching the Hamas handover of dead Israelis on TV was depressing viewing, with the level of hatred on display. What hope is there for the region with this depth of feeling? I was reminded of words from the poet Yeats: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.”

William Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian

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