Tommy Sheridan MSP

34 Two weeks ago I received the answer to a question I sent to the Scottish Government in January. No wonder it took them over five months to reply. I asked how many pensioner households in Scotland lived on an annual income of less than £10,000 and less than £15,000. Disgracefully, for a country as rich as Scotland, 44 per cent of pensioner households, 330,000 pensioners, survive on less than £10,000 a year. Another 28 per cent live on more than £10,000 but less than £15,000. 72 per cent of Scottish pensioners live on less than £15,000 a year and almost half live on less than £10,000.What a damning indictment of New Labour and the big business free market economy they so slavishly promote. Is it any wonder the most recent statistics on income equality have revealed that Britain is more unequal than it was in 1997 and indeed is even more unequal than it was in 1992 under John Major. New Labour’s whole philosophy has been the promotion and protection of big business and their fat cat owners to the detriment of ordinary working class families. The top tier of tax across the UK is lower now than it was under the Queen of Inequality, Thatcher herself.The tax on profits, corporation tax, is also lower than under the Tories and is the most business friendly of Europe’s large economies. Brown’s whole box of tax credit tricks amount to humiliating crumbs that force more ordinary workers and pensioners to succumb to means testing.Twenty five per cent more pensioners are means tested today compared to 1997. And to pay for health and education services over 100,000 workers are to be given the chop but not a single penny more tax is to be paid by the multi- millionaires or the big businesses like the three biggest banks who have posted record profits in excess of £7 billion each! Even 10p more on those earning over £100,000 would generate an extra £5 billion but New Labour is content to punish civil servants and means test pensioners instead to protect their rich friends. In Scotland that philosophy explains New Labour’s opposition to my Bill to abolish the Council Tax and replace it with a progressive income related alternative.Worked out in detail over the last four years by Paisley University Business School, the Scottish Service Tax is applied to each person’s income and establishes a firm ability to pay determinant to fund local services and related jobs. The new tax is administered and collected by the Inland Revenue with a built-in exemption for the first £10,000 of annual income.Thus the 44 per cent of Scotland’s pensioners struggling to make ends meet on less than 10 grand a year and still pay their council tax will have £40 to £60 a month on average more to spend. The SSP is determined to deliver wealth redistribution. Under our Scottish Service Tax proposal 77 per cent of Scots pay less, 15 per cent pay more and 8 per cent pay roughly the same. Workers on low and average wages and over 90 per cent or pensioners will benefit.The big earners like politicians, chief executives and others pay more. It is an anti-poverty and pro- redistribution measure and I appeal to RMT members to support it. tommy.sheridan.msp@scottish. parliament.uk End inequality and council tax By TOMMY SHERIDAN MSP