People tend not to contact their MSPs when things are going well, so meetings can be difficult and the inevitable battles with officialdom dispiriting, especially when faced with a Scottish Government which frequently puts its own agenda before common sense.
So, it was wonderful to leave a meeting with a spring in my step, and if you believe the propaganda about young people all being left wing Nationalists you might be surprised to learn it was with modern studies students from Armadale Academy.
They were engaged and curious, with lots of good questions, and they were particularly keen to find out why I was a Conservative and what made me get involved. I explained that I’d run my own business and that small businesses like mine, as well as big ones, were vital because otherwise there would be no tax revenues for the government to spend.
And when I said I believed people should keep as much of the money they have worked hard to earn as possible, and not to see more and more of it taken away by inefficient governments, there were more than a few nods around the room.
So, if fourth and fifth formers can get it, why do both the Labour Government in Westminster and SNP in Holyrood find it extraordinarily hard to grasp? As I said, it’s because they prioritise their own agendas, seeing private businesses generating wealth as a means to fund the imposition of their ideology, not as an end in itself.
We know a genuine tax-cutting approach is not in either playbook because they exist to defend the public sector, and when cuts have to be made it is private businesses, third sector organisations and private individuals who suffer. Labour’s recent employers’ National Insurance rise was a perfect example, a raid on non-government organisations to fund extravagant public sector pay deals.
It’s vital that someone stands up for the real wealth generators, and that’s why Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay’s no-nonsense letter to First Minister John Swinney this week was so important.
In very clear terms it spelt out what we expect from the Scottish Budget on December 4, knowing full well it will be ignored. We want to give families and businesses more freedom and control over their hard-earned cash, and we know the principle will be supported by aspirational workers across Scotland, whether they vote Conservative or not. But we know it won’t be supported by the SNP.
We’d cut income tax to 19 per cent up to £43,662, saving someone on a £35k salary £286 a year. We’d ensure Scottish retail, hospitality and leisure businesses receive the same 40 per cent business rates relief as their counterparts in England and provide full business rates relief for Scotland’s pubs and restaurants. We’d help housebuyers by cutting the crippling Land and Business Transaction Tax to zero for homes worth up to £250k.
When you consider the SNP has taken nearly £1.5 billion from Scottish workers in higher income tax since the power was devolved in 2016, and if anyone thinks National Insurance wouldn’t go the same way if it was devolved, they need a lie down. Cutting the waste out of government and giving people back more of the money they’ve earned isn’t just common sense, it’s common decency.
