The Scotsman makes a habit of presenting nakedly ideological pieces from the likes of Tory councillors, Brexit MEPs and Labour advisers as somehow professional journalism. At least with Murdo Fraser, some readers will know who he is and that this is just another Conservative Party press release of mutual benefit only to them and to the hard-pressed team at the Scotsman.
At least Fraser isn’t going for Kate’s alleged ‘pro-life’ beliefs but then he’ll be tired of the many times he might as well have aborted his own guaranteed-to-lose electoral campaigns. Too far? My Humour Adviser, F. Boyle Jnr (14) says ‘Anything goes if it gets a laugh Grandad!’
Seriously though, here are the facts:
Taxes:
Roughly speaking, people in Scotland pay less income tax than the rest of the UK on earnings below £27,000 a year, and more income tax on earnings above that. The differences are relatively marginal though.
https://fullfact.org/economy/scotland-doesnt-have-highest-taxes-europe/
Car Parking:
Research conducted by the RAC Foundation suggests parking fees and fines produced a collective surplus of £756m last year for 353 local councils in England. That’s a 34% increase since 2011.
Hospitals in England are making hundreds of millions of pounds from car parking charges, with more than 40% of NHS trusts increasing the cost of a stay in the past year. An investigation using freedom of information requests found some trusts have doubled the price of car parking for patients and visitors. Such parking charges have been abolished in Wales and most of Scotland.
Historic Sites:
You’ll pay nothing to visit many of Scotland’s top attractions. Plenty of them are free to enter, and there’s an array of free events and experiences to enjoy too. Explore castles, museums, art galleries and more, all for free, on a day out that won’t leave you out of pocket. It’s on us.
https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/attractions/free/
But:
UK (English] museums to introduce entrance fees in 2016 following Government cuts
Fraser might also want to consider what his Westminster chums plan for higher earners like him:
High earners could be stripped of 40 per cent of their pension tax relief in next month’s budget, as part of the government’s pledge to “level up” the economy. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and newly-appointed Chancellor Rishi Sunak are to meet for detailed budget talks for the first time on Wednesday 19 February, with the pair said to be keen to relax spending rules. The Treasury is understood to have drawn up plans to cut the rate of relief for higher earners from 40 per cent down to 20 per cent, in a move which would raise £10 billion per year.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Murdo (Laffer-minute) Fraser has no economic credibility. Even Jackson Carlaw agrees.
The (in)famous Laffer Curve joins two points about which there is little (but not zero) dispute. If tax rates are set at zero, you generate zero tax (true). If you tax income at 100%, nobody will take a job (mostly true).
The first issue is that nobody knows the shape of Laffer Curve, or whether it has a single maximum. If it does, nobody knows where that maximum is.
The second issue is that, as evidenced in recent blog posts here, taxes do not fund government spending.
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Tory tax tailor to client (Hootsmon, Herod, Repressing Scotland etc)—
“Don’t feel the actual width and depth of the tax stuff—– feel the weft and warp of the fraud. If you in the media concentrate on one tiny negative, we can give King Boris, all the lying material he needs to keep Scotland in rags, rather than have them thinking about their national assets”.
Murdo the Loser Guy!
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Four decades of following the “Laffer Curve” (greatly boosted by Trump) have given the USA an annual deficit of $1trillion. The Congressional Budget Office predicts an annual deficit of $1.3 trillion over the next decade–a figure many economists think is economically unsustainable.
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin claims Trumps tax cuts (2017) will be paid for in economic growth, but that seems entirely unlikely, as the cuts were mostly aimed at the rich, a demographic which tends not to spend its moneys on mass market consumables.
The Laffer Curve is a scam aimed at the economically gullible, count on your fingers, glaikit folk of this world.
Take a bow, Murdo the Loser Guy!
Never won an election.
Beaten by Bella.
Beaten by Parachute Ruthie.
Too feart to run against Jaikie Carlot, another loser who “crashed” two car companies.
Murdo–I have a bridge to sell, 26 miles long, suspended from sky hooks.
Interested? Its cheap!
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“Mr Taggart, Mr Taggart—there’s bin a MURDO “!
“Quiet, son. Keep yer voice doon. There’s decent folk round here. Don’t want tae frighten them, wi’ a MURDO on oor hands “!
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Am totally puzzled by a piece carried in the National – Apparently ‘Union’ Jacko received a £5,000 donation for his ‘North British’ tory sub-branch manager campaign from a wealthy donor resident in Jersey. Don’t I recall wee Wendy Whats’it having to stand down following her labour North Brit sub-branch manager campaign accepting a donation from a Jersey resident (£300 from memory).
Have the rules changed – or is history about to repeat itself?? – My Brain Hurts!! Link and snippet below:
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18246224.carlaw-leadership-bid-boosted-tax-haven-donation/
REVEALED: Jackson Carlaw’s campaign backed by tax-haven donor
JACKSON Carlaw’s leadership campaign was boosted by a £5000 donation from a former Labour donor who lives in an overseas tax-haven.
Details of the gift from Jersey-based property tycoon Alan Massie were revealed today on the Tory MSP’s register of interests.
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