English Scots for YES

This is the section from the Long List that covers colleges.

*The Disabled Students Allowance in Scotland protected and bursaries for students maintained, while the Tories abolished both elsewhere in the UK.
*Education Maintenance Allowance in Scotland expanded– scrapped in England – to support 57,000 school pupils and college students from low income families.
*Over 119,000 full-time equivalent college places provided – exceeding 2011 manifesto commitment to maintain 116,000 places.
*£530 million invested in college estates and state-of-the-art buildings in Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Inverness – plus £140 million for Fife and Forth Valley colleges.
*Full-time college students benefit from the highest bursary of anywhere in the UK.
*A record numbers of Scots supported into university. Young people from deprived areas more likely to study at university.
*The poorest university students living at home benefit from a minimum income guarantee of £7,625 per year – the highest in the UK.

If I can expand on the cuts in Staff in the Unison report - Yes indeed many staff were made redundant and classes removed from the colleges' curricula. This was a deliberate policy shift to cease to provide the 'leisure' eg Spanish conversation, flower arranging, type of courses from colleges' remit to free up space and time for more vocational, apprenticeship related and skills upgrading certificated courses. Many of the Leisure type classes did attract the set number of students (around 12), had a tutor appointed and classroom allocated for the term, only to find that within a few weeks numbers had dwindled to 2 or 3 students - been there seen that happen often. This was obviously not best use of the colleges' resources. The change in policy did mean that there were redundancies, as quoted by Unison but the reality is that many of these semi retired or part time tutors have found employment as the leisure courses have restarted on a self funding, sessional basis in Community Centres and Libraries. Meanwhile Colleges are booming with more students on vocational courses than every before.

I'd like to add that for two uni summer vacations my son worked in the admissions dept. He told me about a scheme I hadn't heard of.
Any potential student living in a designated deprived postcode was given special consideration. Provision of summer schools with guaranteed places for successful students. Visits to schools with historically few uni applications to help with UCAS applications and provide encouragement.
At college level my DGD is working through an access course which should lead to a uni place to train as a nurse ( with a bursary).

can I point out that on the 19/9/2014 when the independence supporters gathered in George Square it wasn't them ...the "losers" who kicked off.It was the so called winners .with their union jacks ,threatening young women and setting fire to saltires ...the vast majority of Independence supporters are law abiding people ,I've pointed some of you in the direction of police reports on the largest of rallies before ...not ONE arrest at any of them .I'm not saying that Indy folk are perfect and in no way am I saying that about the SNP ...BUT at least with independence we get to vote out the people who aren't working FOR us ...with Westminster we have to take what the r UK wants ..even when we voted for 56 out of 59 SNP MP's

The sad thing is we could theoretically return all 59 mp's with over 50% majorities in all constituencies and we'd still be largely ignored.
Scottish referendum is too great a distraction from Brexit talks but a general election isn't?

I'm not a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn but he has identified a serious problem - the increasing number of Scottish children living in relative poverty. Who should we blame- the Tories or the SNP?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39696117

From Varian's link :
"The report itself warns against placing too much emphasis on a single year's figures. "More data will be required to judge whether these changes are indicative of a longer term trend," it says."

Here is a link to the organisation End Child Poverty :
www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/poverty-in-your-area-2016/

It includes a map which shows that child poverty is quite widespread throughout the UK, so I'd guess that's more to do with Tory policies than with the SNP.

Thank you for the link FarNorth. Child poverty is far too prevelant nationwide especially in cities. Corbyn is right to highlight this. It should be adressed by the UK government and the Scottish government.

Yes Tory austerity cuts!
SNP have tried to put in place damage limitation e.g. support with bedroom cuts etc but with devolved powers limited as they are, it's like the little Dutch boy sticking his finger in the dam!

Erm what about the SNP budget underspend? The extra funding they were given for health but didn't use it for that?

That's an interesting link, FarNorth. If you download the excel for your area, it goes down to your village, let alone council area. Very informative.

I have not read every single post on Scottish Independence purely because as soon as any discussion on the subject starts so too do the insults and personal attacks. It seems it is impossible to hold a rational, adult, well-balanced discussion. I know from personal experience of IndyRef 1 that we are, now as then, Better Together. Yes, I am an English Scot, living in an area of some deprivation north west of Glasgow but I know of many Scots who, like me, do not want independence.

Can you elaborate on that, Jane10?

jane10 the underspend was explained clearly by John Swinney ,the money was held back to mitigate the budget cuts the following year ,meaning that services wouldn't be cut as much as they might otherwise be .Not ideal to have to mitigate those cuts but it did give us some relief ,remember we CANT BORROW so we have to stick within the budget we get from Westminster.

paddyann

" We have to stick within the budget from Westminster"

Scotland could raise 'certain areas' of taxation of course as it has the Devolved Power to do so. Scotland has been given unprecedented powers to shape it's economy under the Scotland Act. No idea if it's true but I understand it could raise as much 16 billion but no idea how that figure is estimated if correct.

Sturgeon has said for a while that her intention was to increase the top rate of Income Tax to 50p 'I believe' .

Has that happened? If not is she going to raise Income Tax finally.?

The Scottish government kept the threshold for the higher rate of tax at £43,000 unlike the rest of the UK where it was raised to £45,000.

They have been attacked from all sides, especially by Ruth Davidson and other Tories, for making Scotland the "highest taxed part of the UK".

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/02/middle-class-scots-pay-400-income-tax-english-thanks-snp-green/

Here is a full explanation of how the Scottish taxation rules work.

www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/12/4872/1

One of the Key points is that The terms of the agreement are designed to ensure no detriment to the Scottish budget. If tax policy and economic performance in Scotland remains the same as in the rest of the UK, then the Scottish budget will be no better or worse off than it would have been under the Barnett Formula

Which means that should the SG raise the basic rate of Income tax then any extra monies raised would be deducted from the block grant with, therefore no advantage to the Scottish Budget but all Tax Payers in Scotland paying more. The only viable option left to the SG to shift the burden of tax from the lowest paid to the highest was the one they took - namely to freeze the threshold at which the highest rate of tax falls due. As to a top rate of 50%, whether they would like to or not is irrelevant as the SG does not have the power to change the rates of tax within Tax bands, only to apply an across the board rise in the basic rate i.e. a 1% rise would impact disproportionately on the lowest band.

Power devolved is power retained. In this case the SG was damned if they did use the new powers (because the biggest burden would fall on the lowest paid), and damned if they didn't because Westminster would call them fearties if they did not raise the basic rate. AND the overarching principal that the Scottish budget will be no better or worse off than it would have been under the Barnett Formula means that there would be no benefit to anyone bar the Treasury.

www.snp.org/pb_how_will_the_snp_use_the_new_powers_from_the_scotland_act_2016

How will the SNP use the new powers from the Scotland Act 2016?

"In the next Parliament we will use these powers to better serve the interests of all of Scotland. We will:-

Use new tax powers to support economic growth, invest in public services and protect people on low incomes."

I thought this meant The Scottish Government having a SNP majority would have already raised the Income Tax threshold and rate to 50p as Nicola Sturgeon said she would do.

Perhaps ALL parties will put up income tax rates and thresholds but having 'the power' to do so and listened to the rhetoric espoused by the SNP I don't understand why it has not led the way, it said enough about it.

That is my query. Why didn't the SNP hold it's own feet to the fire , it asked for ' the power' to do so and that was given.

Where am I getting muddled, am I getting muddled?

Granny 23

What I am gaining from your point re The Barnet Formula and the reason 'NOT' to raise Income Tax is leading me to believe that at the end of the day all the shouting from the roof tops for the power to raise taxation to provide for independent taxation to pass on to the Scottish People has been nothing short of bluster.

Or, again, have I incorrectly understood the connection between the Barnet Formula and reason as to why Sturgeon has not used the power to raise Income Tax as she said she would do?

I am wondering if the Barnet Formula should be scrapped and all 4 nations in the UK have the same 'per head' spending anyway, it has always been a bone of contention,.

Granny23's post leads me to believe that the Scottish government was not given the powers it hoped for, but a restricted version which left them little room to act.

Jane 10

I get that impression every time I hear John Swinney , Sturgeon and Salmond interviewed.

I guess it would be fair to acknowledge devolved powers do not include VAT as an example but I don't understand this business over Income tax, the action , or inaction , does not match the rhetoric.

Granny23's post is clear that the tax rate in the top band could not be raised to 50p, without also raising the rates in the other bands by the same percentage, so the basic rate would have to go up from 20p to 25p.

I'm confused, tho, about why the starting level was kept to £43,000 if the Scottish government would not get any benefit from it.

FarNorth Gesture politics I suppose - not wanting to endorse a tax reduction for the better off.

Yes indeed. Gesture politics. One tax they did tinker with has backfired as predicted. The replacement for Stamp duty led to a large in tax take. Own goal. Also indicative of a poor understanding of how the economy works. Sigh.

Posted too soon- a large reduction in tax intake.

Now an £800 million pound loss of revenue revealed due to this new tax!! And SNP dares to claim its the Tories imposition of austerity on Scottish budgets leading to hard times in Scotland not their own economic incompetence!! What is the matter with these guys?!