Jerked into life by the First Minister’s apparent though tentative support for the Reform Scotland think-tank urging a basic income guarantee, or universal basic income (UBI), Tom Gordonstoun writes in the Herald today: ‘Even on these antique numbers, the costs are astronomical at £20bn a year, or half the current Scottish budget. It would be partly paid for by scrapping some benefits, scrapping the personal tax allowance, and adding 8p to all rates of income tax. So the starter rate of income tax in Scotland would be 27% on the very first pound of earnings as opposed to 19p on earnings over … Continue reading Likeminded? Herald’s Tom Gordonstoun and IEA’s Kate Andrews