To Barnett or not to Barnett?

The Barnett Formula works for the UK - if Scotland gets FA (Fiscal Autonomy) as well, as they all seem hell bent on, Scots will have extra taxes to pay.

Any pleas by Scots for a reduction in UK taxes to balance our personal budgets would mean less spent in Scotland from UK taxes - a reduced slice of Barnett being the most obvious option. Before any tinkering with Barnett, we MUST be told what Full Fiscal Autonomy entails.

How many tax bills is Scotland asking to have levied here?

Is FA so much smoke and mirrors? Sturgeon, Murphy and Davidson MUST clarify this if they want an honest ballot result.

Bedroom Tax - Put in hands of democracy

STOP BEDROOM TAX CHAOS WITH LOCAL DEMOCRACY

The Chairman of UKIP Scotland, Mike Scott-Hayward, wants local democracy restored not least of all to stop the chaos caused by the implementation of the so-called bedroom tax.

His comments come after a landmark ruling in a Fife case which deemed that a rather small room could not be used as a bedroom, and therefore the "tax" could not apply.

"The positive in this is that British justice does, eventually, work. A Judge appointed by the Lord Chancellor, Kenneth Clark, hears these cases and has made the landmark ruling, "Mr Scott-Hayward said.

"The silly side is that we are in this daft position in the first place. The first time I served as a councillor was in the days of North East Fife District Council. On the then Housing Committee, many tricky decision were taken on such matters - evictions, admission to housing lists, appeals against decisions made by officers, etc. - by elected members. We, in a sense, acted as a jury, applied common sense and had the authority as the Housing Authority, to decide to extent to which a pedantic ruling need be applied. Common sense and sensibility ruled the day, and these matters were often conducted in camera, and helped many hard pressed families.

"I contend that an appeal to panel of elected councillors should be the first recourse for any citizen who considers that an officer ruling is unfair. The councillors would therefore, as of old when we were still truly British, rather than as now increasingly continental in having too much direct rule by bureaucrats, use common sense and local knowledge to look after their people, the people who they are elected to serve.

"That would cut the cost of the number of cases that may need to go to a Judge, and go some small way to restoring local democracy."

UKIP's plans kill the poverty trap - Basic Cash Benefit and flat rate tax is brilliiant!

Why has the media and the fiscal world failed to latch onto the brilliance of UKIP's Basic Cash Benefit and Flat Rate tax plans? It kills the benefits poverty trap.

Here is how it works:


All 70 odd current benefits are scrapped and replaced with the Basic Cash Benefit - BCB - set at the same level as the current Job Seeker's Allowance. It is paid to all unemployed and low earners without any clawback if they take employment. Those on BCB, however, pay flat rate tax on all earnings, whilst keeping the full BCB.

When earnings reach £11,500, the BCB stops but then the personal tax allowance kicks in and the flat rate tax is paid only on earnings over £11,500.

What does all that mean?


Have a look at this (assumes BCB is £60 pw)

BCB........3120......3120......3120......3120......3120......0000.....0000......0000
PAY........000......1500......2500.....10000.....11400.....11500....14000.....20000
TAX........000.......465.......775........3100......3534.......000......775......2635
POCKET.3120......4155......4845.....10020.....10986.....11500...13225.....17365


As can been seen there is clearly an incentive to take work and to build up to full time employment and full wages. The Personal Allowance of £11,500 equates to a full time job on the minimum wage.

The poverty trap would be no more.