The SNP has long talked a good game on reforming the council tax. The party likes to bash Keir Starmer’s government for breaking pre-election promises.
But the Nats’ failure to honour its 2007 pledge to scrap the council tax lives long in the memories of many voters. When it first got into power, the party discovered it was easier to impose a tax freeze on local authorities than reform the wider system.
Unsurprisingly, households were delighted their bills didn’t go up year after year. The reality was it was simply storing up trouble for later.
Local authorities saw their budgets hammered by George Osborne when the Tories returned to Downing Street and set about slashing public spending.
In Scotland, councils were prevented from raising the one local tax at their disposal to compensate. The end result can be seen all around – roads covered in potholes, unsafe pavements and shuttered community centres.
Local government is a mess and can’t afford to run the public services we all depend upon. The Scottish Government can no longer afford to freeze council tax – meaning households get angry when their bills go up.
It’s in this context that Shona Robison has said the system could be made fairer. It’s taken the best part of 20 years to get to this stage.
SNP ministers must now grab the bull by the horns and deliver a system that works for everyone. There is cross-party support at Holyrood. This is a chance that cannot be squandered. Council tax has had its day.
Probe is too slow
Police investigations by their very nature can take a while. All evidence needs to be gathered and the facts have to be established.
But Labour peer George Foulkes is right that the National Crime Agency needs to get cracking with its investigation into Michelle Mone.
The NCA started looking into PPE Medpro nearly four years ago and the probe is dragging on. The hold-up is also preventing the House of Lords from publishing its report into the scandal-hit tycoon.
Foulkes is right that Mone’s initial appointment to the Lords was farcical and she brings it into disrepute. It is time for the NCA to get the finger out and finish its investigation. Four years is long enough.