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Hamish MacDonell: Was there a darker reason for Lib Dems' U-turn on tax?

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Published Date: 05 February 2009
THE Liberal Democrats have suffered general derision over their decision to ditch their policy of cutting income tax by 2p in the pound, then falling over themselves to do a deal with the SNP.
So why did they do it? Why did Tavish Scott, the Lib Dem leader, move so quickly to ditch a policy he had stood by so defiantly?

The first point that emerged from the Lib Dem group yesterday was that this was Mr Scott's decision. He really did le
ad from the front on this one. Mr Scott decided, as soon as the Budget fell last week, that the Lib Dems could get themselves back in the game and get something out of it, and he persuaded his parliamentary group to back him.

"Tavish got a fairly easy ride on this," said one Lib Dem MSP. "He explained the situation and, after discussion, he was given the backing to do it."

Having decided to renegotiate with the SNP, there was then the difficult question of what the Lib Dems would ask for. Other parties demanded specific budgetary proposals, but the Lib Dems did not. Instead, they asked for the First Minister's submission to the Calman Commission, a financial services task force for jobs and a new approach to spending decisions in the future, involving all the parties.

A Lib Dem source said this was deliberate, because the party had just come from a position of demanding massive public-sector cuts to pay for an income tax cut.

"We couldn't go from public-sector cuts to demanding that public money be spent on specific projects; we would have been crucified," said the source.

The Lib Dems got their deal, the SNP got the votes it needed to get the Budget through, and that was that. Or was it? There were suggestions last night that this might be the start of a "Lib Dem-SNP love-in", and that the Liberals might be prepared to help the Scottish Government more in the future, on local income tax and possibly on other matters.

This would help the Lib Dems ease themselves out of Labour's shadow and give the SNP an alternative to relying on the Greens to get legislation through. Was this the underlying reason behind Mr Scott's opportunism?





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  • Last Updated: 04 February 2009 10:19 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Hamish Macdonell
 
1

webwise,

Scotland 04/02/2009 22:31:37
There was one other opposition party performed a massive 'U' turn yesterday, although it won't be headlined in the Scottish press.

The BBC had the affrontary to suggest that Labour had forced the SNP to make 'concessions'. The BBC failed to mention that the SNP offered exactly the same as was on offer last week.

I wonder what changed Labour's mind?
2

Colkitto,

River Clyde 05/02/2009 00:11:03
Labour performed a massive U Turn as well remember !

Both Scott and Grey had a sleepless night when they realised there actually could be an election.
They couldn't wait to do a deal with the SNP government the next day after the budget was voted down!!!
3

Wardog™,

05/02/2009 00:13:04


"....Was there a darker reason for Lib Dems' U-turn on tax?...."


ooooo, the scary SNP bogeymen..... FFS Hamish, aren't you a bit old for fairystory's

4

Edward,

05/02/2009 00:35:51
Anyone see Iain Grey on Newsnight Scotland?
Found it hilarious, as Grey could not justify the U turn, also didnt have many answers to Gordon Brewers questions, by the end ofthe interview Gordon Brewer seemed a bit fed up of Grey, with a dismissive 'Thank you (and get lost - which seemed to be what he was thinking)'
5

,

05/02/2009 01:04:04
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6

,

05/02/2009 01:35:20
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,

05/02/2009 02:29:14
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8

donald,

glasgow 05/02/2009 05:02:40
Pity there was not an cto increase the SNP majority.
9

donald,

glasgow 05/02/2009 05:04:46
Pity there was not an election increase the SNP majority.
10

Sierra Foothills Scot,

Diamond Springs 05/02/2009 05:51:26
#6 Jwil

Murphy got the job of Scottish Secretary (a/k/a governer general of Scotland) because Gordon Brown wanted Murphy's purpose to be "to make his crass answers against the SNP". Gordon Brown did not want anyone to represent Scottish interests in the UK parliament, which is supposed to be the Scottish Sectretary's function, because Brown believes Scottish interests should be congruous with British interests -- or more specifically, with Gordon Brown's interests.
11

AJM,

05/02/2009 09:47:09
There is a darker side to this change of heart but not what it appears. Last year AS threatened to resign over the budget, same tactic again this year. What changed was the Lib Dems immediately sat down and came up with a deal. This was in no small part instigated by the incompetence of Swinney.

However go to next year and the SNP having trouble with the budget, can AS threaten to resign. NO. Because we all know that he if spends 5 mins talking to the Lib Dems a deal can be done. So politics is being played out and the SNP have had one of their cherished tactics neutralised. Well done to the Lib Dems. Tavish is getting to be a lot smarter than he first appeared.
12

AJM,

05/02/2009 09:52:33
Jwil, you need a reality check. Do you think that AS is putting his most able politicians to Westminster. Nope, look at the guy that was standing in Gelnrothes, he clearly could hardly string a political sentence together. He was simply awful.When AS was with him he did all the answers.

So it should come to no surprise to you that Murphy, who is a least an able politician, is running rings round the Westminster SNP. you are right Scotland deserves better MPs's, but that is the fault of the SNP putting numpties up for the job.
13

Marian,

05/02/2009 09:56:24
What we have seen very clearly this past week is what a shower of numpties New Labour has employed as their leadership in Scotland.

Grey thought he could get elected unopposed as First Minister after forcing Alex Salmond to resign over the budget issue.

To give him credit Tavish Scott was horrified at the prospect of Grey as First Minister and sought to get himself immediately out of the hole he had dug for himself with his "tax cut".

Not to their credit was the fact that New Labour's rank and file MSP's suddenly woke up and realised that they would be committing electoral suicide if the SNP called a Scots Parliamentary election.
14

AJM,

05/02/2009 10:07:27
Marion, it seems that Tavish might have been even smarter then, as if as you say that Grey had an idea becoming FM, Tavish by putting a halt to the "I'll resign if the budget does not go through", has killed that route off for Grey.
15

Doh,

05/02/2009 10:28:56


"Darker reason" the implication from the article is that this might herald a rapprochment between the SNP and the LibDems. That could only be described as "dark" if you were a Labour supporter.

16

Rev. S. Campbell,

Bath 05/02/2009 10:59:11
#11 "However go to next year and the SNP having trouble with the budget, can AS threaten to resign. NO. Because we all know that he if spends 5 mins talking to the Lib Dems a deal can be done. So politics is being played out and the SNP have had one of their cherished tactics neutralised."

It's a bit early to be drunk, isn't it?
17

Jimmy Le Pie,

05/02/2009 11:17:36
Another scaremongering headline from Hamish.

What will you support when the Sleaze Party get wiped out at the next election???
18

pehman,

sussex 05/02/2009 11:45:18
Once it became obvious that greys plan for a vote of confidence was going to fail
(slab even brought in 2 members who were on sick leave trying to force the vote, who I note were absent yesterday)the backlash from that would cause him to stand down, then there was nothing else the lap dogs could do but try to save face and distance themselves from it.
19

Il Penseroso,

Inverurie 05/02/2009 11:46:29
AJM If you think for an instant that the LibDems are playing a shrewd political game, come up here to the Lib Dem stronghold of the North East and see them in action. The blood-letting has almost reached the proportions of the 14th Century. If the police want to stop knife crime they will see more "stabs-in-the-backs" here in the N.E. than in the Central belt. Last weeks bravado by the Labour and LibDems was nothing short of political naivety. Their excuses this week voting for the budget only shows how pitiful last weeks efforts really were. Did you see the quiet smiles on the SNP benches? Take on Salmond at your peril!!
20

The west awake,

Argyll 05/02/2009 12:11:02
AJM 12 - I completely disagree with you and agree with Jwil.
I watched the same programme last night and was sickened by the obvious, virulent loathing barely under the surface in the treatment of the SNP MPs. Chief Inquisitor (he even looks like one) was Murphy, who resisted no temptation to abuse his position to attack the Scottish Govt. - the treatment even managing to provoke a rebuke from Gorbals Mick, whose parliamentary bias toward New Labour is legendary.
It reminded me of an interview I watched with Winnie Ewing, who described how, as the first SNP MP, she was regularly the subject of (non-parliamentary) verbal abuse (and even on one occasion physical abuse) in the "Mother of Parliaments".
All in all, I genuinely felt that our SNP MPs were being treated much like the Irish nationalists were before they decided to leave this loathsome Union.
The only bright thing I took from it was how much better Holyrood appeared, compared to that anarchic, negative, sleazy bear pit.
21

AJM,

05/02/2009 13:00:59
#16 Thanks for putting up a detailed critique of my assessment. The spitting of the dummy out of the pram only works, as in this case, there is no alternative, the course of action by the Lib Dems demonstrated there was.

#19 I was referring to Tavish not any ground war that might be going on. Only time will tell who is right on this one. As for quiet smiles, I thought they were smug ones, but it was only a budget being passed, thought the choreographed smiling was bit of a cringe.

#20 Did not see the programme but cannot comment. But you seem to have bypassed my view of the abiility of the SNP MP's. However to go from a mauling of an MP to MP's Irish Nationalists from another era is quite frankly absurd.
22

Arfur,

05/02/2009 13:26:54
This is the 4th story by Hamish trying to divert the pressure off Labour and Lib Dem to just Lib Dem.
23

The west awake,

Argyll 05/02/2009 13:54:32
21 AJM - I reckon I answered your point in a way in that I was pointing out the generally hostile environment the SNP MPs have to operate in. I would suggest that it doesn't matter how good or bad they are in that place, since what they say or do will be ignored at best and attacked at worst.
However, I will now address your point directly. I do not know how good the SNP MPs are, their performance last night (which you didn't see) seemed OK to me, but perhaps not up to the standard of the SNP front bench at Holyrood.
As a Nationalist I am happy with that situation and would be worried otherwise. It has become clear the struggle for Independence is being waged in Scotland and that is where the best Nationalist firepower should be. Labour are obviously of the opposite opinion, since their Holyrood offerings are at best second rate, at worst incompetent fools.
On your second point why is it "frankly absurd" to compare the atmosphere in Westminster toward SNP MPs with that of Irish Nationalist MPs before Irish Independence? It seems a perfectly sound comparison, ie Celtic nation currently part of UK wanting to achieve Independence, in so doing leaving the UK behind. - I can't think of many more pertinent comparisons actually.
24

person who's right,

Edinburgh 05/02/2009 14:01:58
#15 - Exactly right..!!

I read this article waiting to find the 'dark reason' why Tavish might back Alex...only to find that there wasn't one - it's just The Scotsman's own political viewpoint that any alliance between the Lib Dems and the SNP is automatically 'dark'..?!

Bizarre. And then they wonder why fewer and fewer people actually buy their paper, instead choosing to scan it for free online?
25

Florence,

Edinburgh 05/02/2009 16:10:29
11 and 12 AJM: Alex Salmond was merely stating a fact that if the budget did not go through the second time he would have no alternative but to resign. A party cannot govern if it cannot have its budget ratified. This fact was clearly explained by Brian Taylor and that it is in the Scotland Act. You, together with the Press and the BBC on both TV and radio, are misrepresenting the situation. No threat - a fact of life.
26

AJM,

05/02/2009 17:45:59
#25 The fact is AS tied to a remark about an election, that is a poltical view not a fact. There need not be an election. Once that was added, it was more than a statement of fact.

#26 Ploughmans lunch, I take it that you are out to a long lunch and a SNP supporter. A tricky combination.
27

Curley Bill,

05/02/2009 19:30:01
AJM, may I congratulate you - I find you almost as entertaining as Grahamski.
28

Scottish 'N British,

05/02/2009 19:41:00
Aside from trying to out-manoeuvre Gray, I sawnothing overtly sinister in it.

I should add that it was interesting to see the rest of the Lib Dems accede to his judgement, whichisn't the LD way.

IU think they did in order to claim the 'big prize', SNP support for Calman.

It's a master stroke as the LD's put great store in Calman and Salmon had been so determined not to take part for fear of undermining his Nat Con (b.2007 d.2008).

29

AJM,

05/02/2009 23:52:09
#28 Curley Bill , thank you, I do not consider myself a full time member of the entertainment here but I do my best when I think that I have a view.

There needs to be balance to the paid up members of the SNP who probably get a discount on their subs for the volume of running Scotland and the UK down. Litle of it seems to make any real sense, especially in the current economic circumstances.

 

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