A council tax freeze in Scotland, a council tax hike in England
‘The background to the announcement by the Finance Secretary to the Scottish Parliament John Sweeney that householders in Scotland will have their council tax bills frozen until 2012 raises fundamental questions about justice and fairness and the whole point and purpose of the Union’ says John Stanhope, member of the National Council of the Campaign for an English Parliament writing in his blog to CEP members in the Midlands
‘The background to it is a £210 million deal to be funded by England’s taxpayers which has been worked out between the Scottish Parliament and the UK Treasury headed by Alistair Darling, MP for Edinburgh South West and supervised by Gordon Brown MP for Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath. In England meanwhile council tax bills are set to rise by almost £50 for an average property next year in order to plug a £2.5 billion black hole in local authority finances caused by the economic downturn. An economic downturn caused in large part by the policies of both men.
There are two basic issues here,’ states Mr Stanhope. ‘The English taxpayer is as much a member of the British state as any Scot and should therefore be treated equally. We look to our government for fairness. Why is it not forthcoming? Mr Brown signed the ‘Scottish claim of Right’ in March 1989 in which he and 300 other Scottish politicians pledged ‘to make the interests of the Scottish nation paramount in everything we say and do’. Is he and Mr Darling exploiting their control of UK finances, 85% of which are produced by the English population, to provide a better deal for Scotland?
‘Secondly, where are our English MPs? They are elected by their English constituents to represent their interests. Yet they are always as silent as the grave on matters like this. By the time of the London Olympics Scottish families will be paying the same amount of council tax as they were in 2007. In England it may even have doubled. The injustice is beyond comprehension.’
At its September meeting in Birmingham on Saturday the 19th the CEP National Council confirmed its arrangements for the meeting ‘The Future of England’ in the House of Commons on November 18th, the day of the Queen’s Speech at which matters such as this will be discussed.
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Why is it that whenever I look for comments regarding the articles, they are either not there or are in single numbers?
Can I suggest that this could be due to several problems that I feel the CEP are experencing but never really addressing.
1. Not everyboby is on the internet, get a magazine going again.
2. As with many organisations that I have been a member of most members seem to think that by being a member they have done their bit.
3. Most of the workings of the CEP are confined to the National Council and we are not invited to become involved.
On to this article, I intend to write to the Western daily Press about this, so I hope its accurate.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:41 pmThe council tax freeze in Scotland is frankly old news it was announced at the end of last year and .. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2008/03/05152834
And its £70 million according to the Scottish Gov not £210 .
The £210 figure is an estimated figure for 2011 and comes from .. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/holyrood-urged-to-end-council-tax-freeze-1.921217
People in Scotland do pay council tax and the freeze will result in a reduction of services . The Scottish Govt intend to replace council tax
Quote
“This Government is committed to abolishing Council Tax altogether and replacing it with a fairer system based on the ability to pay and we will publish a consultation document shortly.”
Even that most unionist paper the Hootsman had an article in it in Feb .. http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Council-tax-freeze-across-Scotland.3781358.jp
As for the LONDON Olympics please don’t get me started £9.3 BILLION and a preliminary estimate of £600 million – plus £238 million contingency – for policing and security. Exactly what good are the Olympics doing for someone living in North Shields or Wick.
Rant over
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:03 pmCapital expenditure on London for the Olympics will result in Barnett consequentials for Scotland. Lucky you, the rest of England is getting chuff all.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:13 pmMr “wonkotsane”
I live in Suffolk – so it’s chuff all here too
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:27 pmAh! yes Mr McFeagle you live in Suffolk England, but your loyalties lie across the border my friend.
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 amWonkotsane,
I dont think there will be any Barnett consequentials for any of the UK countries as a result of the 2012 Olypics as the Treasury has deemed this as a UK wide benefit (really!..).
Now of course I could be wrong and that nice Mr. Darling might have changed his mind since I last read about it.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 amWhat is the revenue and expenditure of England, some guy keeps telling me that we are in 100 billion deficit, and of course I would like know from someone more accountable.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:53 pmI’m feeling confused – is LONDON the capital of England only or of the UK as a whole? Anyone know?
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:14 pmMatt – a good question.
According to Whitaker’s Almanack (my latest edition is for 2004) London is the capital of the United Kingdom. Unlike our national neighbours, England doesn’t have a capital to call her own.
In the section World Area and Population are tabulated columns for:
COUNTRY/TERRITORY – AREA – POPULATION – CAPITAL – POPULATION OF CAPITAL
against England, in the columns for CAPITAL and POPULATION OF CAPITAL are shown dashes (definitely not ditto marks!)
In Whitaker’s 1980s editions, the above entries alongside England were simply left blank.
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:21 pmwe get our pocket money from westminster and we are entitled to spend it as we think fit
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pmDalriada, I’m pretty sure we had something from the Treasury saying there would be Barnett consequentials.
Daggs, McFeagle is a supporter of our campaign and living in England he also gets shafted by the Scottish Raj. Cut him some slack!
George, if there is a deficit in England’s budget that’s all the more reason for us to stop subsidising the rest of the UK.
Matt, England officially has no capital as the British refuse to recognise our country as anything other than a collection of 9 colonies.
Clyde, pocket money doesn’t usually have 9 zeroes on the end of it.
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:32 pmI wasn’t having a go at McFeagle, Wonko. I know he’s on our side. Indeed i’ve defended him in the past.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:41 pmSaying his loyalties are with Scotland was certainly not meant to be offensive, even if true.
Thanks for the defence gents
– it would take a sight more than that to get me offended.
I am Scottish, and happily live in England and am very vocal amongst colleagues/ friends and anyone that will listen in support of an EP. I just wish folk would take an active interest in what happens in their own country England, Scotland Wales and NI. Go to meetings, write to their local MP ( I think mine is sick of me ), attend community events and to make a bigger difference join a political party and go and try to influence their policies.
England needs an EP it is under represented in the uK and very misunderstood. There is too much conflation about Britain & England – it’s about time that folk realised that they are not one and the same.
London is the capital of England – no doubt in my mind at all – go and stand in front of the Tower or Buck Palace, it looks and feels English . Emotionally London is the capital of England.
The Olympics .. I have no idea if Barnett applies .. but I do care a lot about the amount of money that could be spent providing better local affordable facilities for kids and sport . It seems to me that London is once again getting a lot and the rest are getting very little. No one that I know is excited about it, even my daughter ( teenager ) reckons that kids would get more value from a decent 50 metre swimming pool. We are only 60 mins by train ( when they work ) from London but don’t seem to have any local venues for the games .. sorry Im ranting again.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:17 pmCan someone please point me to the source which states that the English taxpayer will be contributing £210m toward Scottish local authority funding. This will have to be financed from the Scottish block grant i.e it will cost the English taxpayer nothing. Anyway, the idea of the Labour government in London doing some kind of deal with the SNP is ludicrous, they hate each other.
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 pmMr Bercow also indicated that he would be ready to preside over a Commons debate on the establishment of an English Parliament, though he stressed it was not his role to call for such a debate.
“It is a very proper subject to be fully debated,” he said.
“I accept it is a matter about which a lot of people feel strongly. The idea that it will go away and can be submerged or somehow is not a proper subject to have a detailed debate about – no, it is such a subject and it will be discussed and it should be and some of that discussion will inevitably be on the floor of the House of Commons.”
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/speaker-calls-on-mps-to-give-up-12-week-recess-1.921935
September 25th, 2009 at 8:07 amhowday wonko,you get my point about scotlands pocket money its whatever westminster gives us dont matter how many zeros there is,we can spend it as we please.
re barnet of all the regions in uk london is the only region that gets less(per head of popl)
than scotland hey but i dont mind subsidising every one outside london
my point? BRITAIN ISNT WORKING time for all countries to run there own affairs
September 28th, 2009 at 9:55 pmClyde, not quite right I’m afraid, you’ll find that the Total GVA for England in the United Kingdom far higher that proportional spendind, in fact if you ever said that to anyone outside of London (except of the North East) I’d be suprised if they did not hit you.
Go to the South and say you are ’subsidising’ them and expect a fat lip, because honestly if you see the place – you deserve it.
September 29th, 2009 at 7:42 am