Is freezing Council tax fair to

[BCram]

the lowest bands of Council tax payers? I was very surprised at this rabbit out of the hat announcement. All the talk before had been about significant increases for Band D and above property owners.

I am very suspicious of this announcement. Have our local councils given Holyrood totals of the amount of council tax that would be raised under the original proposals? Is that figure going to be given to councils as part of their block grant?

Will there be significant increases in business rates?

This whole approach from Humza sounds very dodgy and I hope that local government will stand up for their constituents.

I watched an Aljazeera programme recently about democracy in the Middle East. The dictators like Saddam and Gaddafi were corrupt and surrounded themselves with people who were bribed with fabulous wealth to ensure that the dictatorship controlled the population.

Democracy was sold to these populations by the West, as a fairer way to run a country and they would be much better off if they changed to a democratic approach to running their countries.

It didn't work at all and new or perhaps even the same corrupt rich people carried on as before and the same poor people suffered.

Along comes religion and new leaders who make the same promises of a better world but this time the problem is a foreign power or different religion.

[The AuldYin]

I'd love to know where the moneys coming from? Where's it being diverted from? Who or what is going to have to go without?

[BCram]

That's a good point. Local councillors must not be bullied. My initial post, apologies got carried away with the Israel stuff, but the bullying ethos which simply negates any democratic process is absolutely rife with the Greens and SNP acting like dictators. Don't believe Humza has got the money to finance the council tax freeze. My bet is that he is hoping local councillors suck it up and accept whatever he offers.

[The AuldYin]

I think he's already said it will be funded by central government. Councils absolutely can't take the hit on it, the erse is hanging out their breeks as it is. The SNP/Greens do have a terrible you will do attitude, Sturgeon was by far the worse but time will tell if Yusaf will tone it down a bit, they did get their pants pulled down a bit with that bottle scheme and the cocks in frocks debacle but apart from that they're pretty bullet proof.

[islaydarkblue]

the lowest bands of Council tax payers? I was very surprised at this rabbit out of the hat announcement. All the talk before had been about significant increases for Band D and above property owners.

I am very suspicious of this announcement. Have our local councils given Holyrood totals of the amount of council tax that would be raised under the original proposals? Is that figure going to be given to councils as part of their block grant?

Will there be significant increases in business rates?

This whole approach from Humza sounds very dodgy and I hope that local government will stand up for their constituents.

I watched an Aljazeera programme recently about democracy in the Middle East. The dictators like Saddam and Gaddafi were corrupt and surrounded themselves with people who were bribed with fabulous wealth to ensure that the dictatorship controlled the population.

Democracy was sold to these populations by the West, as a fairer way to run a country and they would be much better off if they changed to a democratic approach to running their countries.

It didn't work at all and new or perhaps even the same corrupt rich people carried on as before and the same poor people suffered.

Along comes religion and new leaders who make the same promises of a better world but this time the problem is a foreign power or different religion.

In my opinion the freezing of the council tax bands next year is a General Election bribe by the SNP who are running scared after they lost their Ritherglen seat in the recent by election which resulted in a thumping majority for the Labour Party candidate.
Humza knows that if this swing to Labour is replicated at the next General Election the SNP will lose a lot of their current MPs.

[islaydarkblue]

I'd love to know where the moneys coming from? Where's it being diverted from? Who or what is going to have to go without?

It has been reported that in recent financial years the Scottish Government has had underspends at the end of each financial year.
Nicola Sturgeon previously diverted millions of pounds of taxpayers money to set up a Scottish Government department dealing solely with independence.
I understand that this department has been quietly disbanded.
I suspect that Humza has not worked out the full cost of his council tax freeze but that does not matter to him as he needed something to rally his troops at their conference last Tuesday in Aberdeen.
The Greens do not matter as they only put up a handful of candidates in a General Election.

[islaydarkblue]

I think he's already said it will be funded by central government. Councils absolutely can't take the hit on it, the erse is hanging out their breeks as it is. The SNP/Greens do have a terrible you will do attitude, Sturgeon was by far the worse but time will tell if Yusaf will tone it down a bit, they did get their pants pulled down a bit with that bottle scheme and the cocks in frocks debacle but apart from that they're pretty bullet proof.

The Scottish Government recently managed to miraculously find millions of pounds to increase the pay offer to local authority teachers.
In my opinion the local authorities throughout Scotland employ too many bosses being paid fancy salaries who are not fit for the job and they should be handed their P45s.
That would save a lot of money.
There are also too many local authority councillors who are only interested in their constituents when there are local authority elections coming up. The rest of the time they do not answer emails as their constituents are an irrelevance.

[islaydarkblue]

That's a good point. Local councillors must not be bullied. My initial post, apologies got carried away with the Israel stuff, but the bullying ethos which simply negates any democratic process is absolutely rife with the Greens and SNP acting like dictators. Don't believe Humza has got the money to finance the council tax freeze. My bet is that he is hoping local councillors suck it up and accept whatever he offers.

This is not the first time that a Scottish Government minister has made an announcement at an SNP annual conference in Aberdeen without doing their homework.
Derek MacKay the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced at SNP annual conference in Aberdeen in October 2015 that the Scottish Government had just awarded the contract to build two new ferries for Calmac to Ferguson Shipyard at a cost of £97 million.
Derek MacKay and his Scottish Government civil servants had not done their homework as they awarded the contract without ensuring that Ferguson Shipyard had provided the necessary financial requirements and guarantees which other shipyards tendering for the same contract had provided.

[BCram]

This is not the first time that a Scottish Government minister has made an announcement at an SNP annual conference in Aberdeen without doing their homework.
Derek MacKay the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced at SNP annual conference in Aberdeen in October 2015 that the Scottish Government had just awarded the contract to build two new ferries for Calmac to Ferguson Shipyard at a cost of £97 million.
Derek MacKay and his Scottish Government civil servants had not done their homework as they awarded the contract without ensuring that Ferguson Shipyard had provided the necessary financial requirements and guarantees which other shipyards tendering for the same contract had provided.

If you take this thread down the ferries route, I will be cross. ��

[Deeranged]

If you take this thread down the ferries route, I will be cross. ��

To be fair it was always going to happen - the man's obsessed with it