In at last!

I now have a very large key for an office in the new Parliament. Simple arithmetic tells me that each MSP’s key cost £3.34 million instead of the £300,000 or so that Donald Dewar promised us.

The fact that new offices for MPs in London cost even more per head is little consolation for a general feeling of having been misled.

The space is fine although it is always possible when you have had no opportunity to influence the design, to make suggestions for improvement. That won’t happen – we have spent more than enough.

The MSP offices are “good enough” – workmanlike and with all the facilities we need. The tea and coffee machines haven’t arrived yet but the walk to the staff canteen might keep us fit.

One MSP’s suggestion that we should have a bus from the centre of Edinburgh seems misguided. I have timed the walk from the railway station to Parliament at a brisk ten minutes.

We should all take 30 minutes exercise each day, so that walk twice a day and using the stairs and not the lift, will just about do it.

Tuesday, 7th September at 9.30 is when we first use the Debating Chamber for real. A statement from the First Minister on his “Program for Government” and two days of debate on that – interspersed with the weekly question times – will show whether the visual elegance of our new chamber lives up to expectations.

But if it is all show and just the same Labour-Liberal Democrat gruel we have had of late, there will simply be no point and public disillusionment will grow further.

Because this government must raise its game. And with our new Scottish Parliament leader of the opposition in place by then, my colleagues and I will be “up for it”.

The SNP’s leadership election has been a very successful exercise in democracy. It has engaged our membership in our first “One Member – One Vote” election and persuaded nearly 80% to actually cast their vote – much more than in Parliamentary or Council elections.

As I write, I do not yet know the result. But I do know that whoever ends up in Leader and Deputy Leader positions will be fit for the job.

And ready to challenge the prevailing mediocrity.

Council Tax

I spoke at the Scottish Conference of the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation in Crieff last week.

My political philosophy in relation to taxation – and that of my party colleagues – derives from Acts 4:34 & 35 –

“..those who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold .. and distribution was made unto every person according as they had need ..”

which was later rendered as

“.. from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs ..”

For the mark of a truly civilised society is one where the better-off support those in need. But we must be fair to taxpayers as well.

And that is why the SNP are in favour of a local income tax for councils to raise their local income.

The current arrangements for an average Scottish band D property in 2003-4 meant a Council Tax charge of £1,059.

For older people – owning property, but mostly on fixed or cost-of-living linked incomes – this has been a serious burden.

The poorest saw 3.3% of their income going on Council Tax in 1997 but that rose to 4.8% in 2001/2. The richest in our society continued to pay only 1.4%.

That’s why many pensioners are campaigning for change. And that is the message I put to the Councillors and officials who attended the conference, the SNP alternative which would relate payment to ability to pay.

But I said more to them.

The cost of the present system, and the uncollected tax, amounts to some £250 million pounds. And the income tax system we would use to collect local tax is already there. So we can save substantial sums of money for the public purse.

We see the kind of changes that I advocated as being fairer to taxpayer, and to those our taxes support, as well as being more efficient.

With the government currently undertaking a consultation on the issue and probably a majority of MSPs now in favour of an income-related local tax – including all the SNP and Liberal Democrat members – change seems unstoppable.

Privacy

The forms that ensure you stay on the electoral register will be coming your way soon. Make sure you send them back!

And if you want to get less marketing mail, make sure you tick the column to stop your name appearing in the “Edited Register”. It then becomes illegal for anyone to use your register entry for marketing purposes.

But you can still vote.