It’s true that the best tax is the kind you don’t have to pay so putting forward a new one that was basically worked out on the back of an envelope was never going to win plaudits for the SNP. So why bother? The party promised in its manifesto to rid Scotland of the discredited Council Tax but it also promised to get rid of student debt and reduce class sizes to 18 and it hasn’t achieved that so why come over all honourable over a local income tax (LIT) that it hasn’t thought through, may be illegal, could be uncollectible, won’t raise enough dosh to pay the bills anyway and isn’t going to win friends and influence people? Well, a clue is in the System Three poll that reveals that nearly half the population like the idea of the LIT because despite what other parties say, the electorate prefers any alternative that delays the inevitable – paying the damned thing. And on the face of it, LIT seems a fairer option because if you can afford to pay, why shouldn’t you? Clearly there are caveats that would need to be built in; protection for the elderly and vulnerable, local discretion and some way of lassoing in the uber-rich who make all their money from savings rather than properly grafted for income. The bottom line is that the SNP hasn’t thought this through. But it is also exactly why the opposition should be jumping on this golden opportunity to offer up a workable alternative and gain some much needed credibility. The SNP may still be enjoying an extended honeymoon with its free prescription charges, abolition of bridge tolls and the reduction in business rates but it is not invincible. John Swinney may be riding high, having navigated a choppy course through a budget that the opposition wrongly predicted would be the party’s downfall but there is a question mark hanging over his credibility with LIT and the Scottish Futures Trust. In all the hullabaloo and excitement, the floundering Labour Party is going to miss the opportunity to make a strike unless it gets its act together. There is little to be gained by harping on about the illegality of LIT or getting Westminster to flex its muscle on your behalf or carping on about how similar the SFT proposals are to Labour’s PPP, the bastard son of the Tories PFI, without making a serious case for the prosecution. The Labour Party has talked a lot about the economic prowess of its new Scottish leader. So, where is Wendy’s critique? All she’s done is ask the FM questions that she knows will reciprocate no answers. This is Labour’s chance to seize the initiative. The party has the need to find a big cause, it has the time while not in government to go out and canvass expert fiscal opinion – God, Wendy could just ask her hubby over the breakfast table. Go for it, Wendy, bring it on. Public sector funding is a difficult area and the rules and regulation around borrowing are fairly arcane and not understood by the general public but if Labour can construct a way of presenting clearly to people what the issues are, why LIT is unworkable and unjust, why the SFT could be fantasy and – crucially – what the alternatives are, then it could be a starting point for recovery and a way of getting at the Government on the only area that people still really have some niggling doubts over the SNP – money. The challenge then is for Labour to show it can do better.

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