TWO more contrasting news items there could not have been in The National yesterday (November 24). Andrew Learmonth reported on the findings of the IFS on a further £12 billion cuts to welfare from Westminster still to come.

Day-to-day public service spending is still due to be 3.6 per cent lower in 2022-23 than it is today. Furthermore, the Fraser of Allander Institute confirmed that Scotland is facing a real-terms cut in its day-to-day budget next year of more than £200 million and more than £500m over the next two years.

Then we have the branch leader of Labour in Scotland, Richard Leonard, meeting the FBU Scotland demanding the Scottish Government uses the powers it has to stop cuts in fire and rescue services (Leonard meets fire unions as Dugdale crawls for scraps, The National).

In a projected period of cuts in overall funding given to Holyrood by Westminster, Leonard, grandstanding as usual, did not identify where cuts from the fixed budget should come to give more to fire and rescue services.

The usual mantra from the Unionists in Holyrood is to be in denial about the cack-handed macro management of the economy by Westminster where these powers lie. Since the SNP governments came to power at Holyrood, they have shown that adjustments can be made to undo the damage in certain sectors of public services funding previously managed by Westminster.

It is becoming tedious to hear the constant ranting from Labour, Tory and LibDem Unionists about alleged failings by the Scottish Government, when the fault lies with Westminster’s failure in handling with its reserved powers our revenues, which the Treasury mismanages on our behalf! We can only assume it will worsen once Brexit factors are taken into account!

Let us have in Scotland devolved full fiscal powers, or better, full independence and Scexit from Westminster’s “sagging shoulders” and let us macro and micro manage our whole economy and societal obligations and commitments.
John Edgar
Stewarton

THE ink has barely settled on Philip Hammond’s Budget and already it is falling apart. The Office for Budget Responsibility has warned that the abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers on houses worth less than £300,000 will push up prices. This will benefit those who already own homes.

According to Professor Richard Murphy the £3bn could have been used to build 40,000 socially rented houses. The Scottish block grant is facing a real-terms cut of £239m.

The Chancellor finally relented and abolished VAT on Police Scotland and the Ambulance Services. He then credited this move to the 13 Scottish Tory MPs. This must be the first time in history that a government policy has been changed and the alleged architects of it had not spoken up for it on a single occasion in Parliament.

The Scottish budget has been cut since 2010. The Scottish resource budget is five per cent lower than it was in 2010 and capital spending is down 12 per cent for the same time period. Wages have suffered a decade of stagnation. The drop in living standards is 10.8 per cent. Only Greece has seen anything comparable. All of this will be small-change compared to the economic tsunami of Brexit that is coming.

The Budget again shows the power of propaganda over reality. The UK is afflicted with false news, because false news is the way the ruling oligarchy controls the explanations given to the public. The public must be kept in the dark about their exploitation by the oligarchy, or they might revolt against the handful that rule them.

The City, the Tories and New Labour have de-industrialised the country. They have destroyed the ladders of upward mobility. The Budget is merely a propaganda statement on behalf of the oligarchy.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

PHILIP Hammond explained away his U-turn on VAT by claiming he was responding to the entreaties of Tory MPs in Scotland (George Kerevan: Budget gimmicks hide Hammond’s refusal to hit the growth button, The National, November 23). Could he put a name to any of these faceless Tory wonders?

In instances where existing legislation did not permit recovery of VAT, the UK Government had regularly used measures to make refunds. Two examples are for the English academy schools in 2011, prior to the Police and Fire Services, and subsequently in 2015 for Highways England.

Whatever its motives the anomaly was due to the Tory Government’s refusal to make a VAT neutral change when the Scottish Government used its devolved powers to create a single service.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry

I SEE Ruth Davidson was quick to say Derek Mackay should follow suit in next month’s Holyrood budget with respect to stamp duty (Property changes raise questions for Holyrood budget, The National, November 23).

With the smoke-and-mirrors extra £2bn he claimed to be giving Scotland (in real terms a cut of £239m), it is clear the Chancellor was making fake news to give the impression Scotland is doing well.

I’ve yet to hear of any Scottish Tory calling out the Chancellor for selling Scotland short. No doubt they are waiting to pounce when Derek Mackay makes what he can of his reduced budget.
Geoff Tompson
Helensburgh