ALAN Magnus-Bennett (Letters, Mar 26) seems to be looking at Scotland through rose-tinted glasses. It may not be as bad here as it is in London but it’s not only Westminster that has Conservatives. Holyrood has them too. They are just as devious at Holyrood as they are at Westminster. Douglas Ross and Ruth Davidson have both done political U-turns for expediency, to say nothing of Fluffy Mundell. And that’s only in Government.
I am aware, although it was some time ago, of fat brown envelopes being exchanged for local government contracts. About that same time, I was also aware of HGV or PSV vehicles arriving at the testing stations with a bottle of malt whisky lying on the passenger seat. Of course, the vehicle examiners had to remove those as they were not permitted. But it usually ensured a pass certificate for the vehicle in question. Unless things have changed drastically in the last 25 years or so, then we are not as squeaky clean as Alan suggests.
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Independence will mean a complete rebuild. Apart from a new taxation system that places less of a burden on the poorer members of our society, we need something in place that stops abuse by the better off. We also need more control over our assets. By this I don’t just means oil and gas that seem to be given away willy-nilly, to an extent where we are having to buy in from Russia and Norway. We are one of the richest oil and gas countries in the world so why are we unable to use our own oil and gas and sell to others, rather than having to buy in at exorbitant prices, causing a cost-of-living crisis? But we also need to take back control of the supply of these utilities instead of having gas and electric companies that are run by Spain and France.
We also need to decide if it is right that companies can employ people on contracts that don’t pay them enough to live on – especially when some of these are multinational companies run or owned by multi-billionaires. We need a government that will stand up to them and tell them that if they are unwilling to pay economic wages then they may not trade in our country. For instance, P&O should be told categorically that they either obey our employment laws or they may not run ferries from our ports. All firms should be told that in an independent Scotland they will be required to have a “branch head office” in Scotland responsible for all business carried out here and will have to pay the appropriate taxes on that business.
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They may decide to try to get round this by removing all depots from Scotland and carrying on business over the internet. Fine, let them do that. But every item they export into Scotland will then encounter an import tax to cover the business taxes that they would have paid through a local head office. Why should our government have to subsidise people’s wages so that big chains can use zero-hour contracts; or Amazon can pay a paltry sum in taxes compared to the business they actually carry out here? I understand Marks & Spencer paid more tax last year than Amazon has paid in the last 10 years. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Of course, a lot of what I am suggesting cannot be done before we get independence because Westminster is responsible for the present state of affairs. We know that they tried to hide our wealth from us when North Sea oil was first discovered. The McCrone Report tells us that. But they are doing the same by selling all our oil and gas to private companies to extract. That oil then goes overseas to other countries for refining and selling and we see little or nothing for it. If our elected representatives don’t get their fingers out and get us Independence soon, there will be nothing left for us to be independent with.
Charlie Kerr
Glenrothes
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