Why are farmers more deserving of tax breaks? - Bruce Whitehead
I was so close! With minutes left of Stephen Jardine’s Radio Scotland phone-in on Thursday note-0with John Swinney, I asked: “If it’s ‘catastrophic’ for farmers to pay inheritance tax, why do nurses, teachers and train drivers have to pay it?”
Swinney boasted about representing a rural area for 30 years, implying strong support for farmers, but acknowledged that if taxes are cut as demanded by Tories and Reform, it means less money for essential services like mental health and education. So why support an effective tax cut for farms worth under £2m?
It seems like the SNP has one tax policy for one group, and another for the rest of us.
Another surprising policy was Swinney’s plan to “cut contact time” for classroom teaching. Granted, this would boost recruitment and tackle the shortage of posts for newly qualified teachers; class sizes are indeed too large, which doesn’t help the attainment gap (although he claimed this is closing). But teachers train to teach, so why reduce their time spent doing so?
On transport, Swinney has a mixed record, re-opening mothballed Borders and Fife railway links; but lightweight e-bus alternatives to expansion of Edinburgh’s heavy trams (which take decades and cost squillions) wasn’t discussed. On active travel, cycling is not being adequately linked up; I reported here on the absence of hire-bike parking at the Western General for example, while taxis and cars clog the entrance. Council matters perhaps, but Transport Scotland has a role.
But the morning’s best caller asked why Calmac’s woeful ferry contracts were so leaky; he thought they'd been awarded to Tony Soprano's Boatyard!
Alas, my question was too late for Mr Jardine’s phone-in. Next week it’s Alex Cole-Hamilton; will he talk about antisocial driving? That’s the one intervention the Lib Dem leader has made in Queensferry, failing dismally when one of his juniors, Cllr Kevin Lang sabotaged his boss’s carpark closure plan.
Maybe that's why AC-H doesn't mention it on his daily election newsletters... Tune in next week!