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Digesting the budget

• Brian Taylor
• 21 Mar 07, 04:28 PM

..... and there's more. Here at Holyrood, the canteen chicken kiev has been digested - and so has the Budget.
Labour smiles are still broad - but so is the consensus elsewhere.

鈥淐on trick鈥�, says the SNP, noting that the 2p tax cut is married to scrapping the starting rate and tweaking National Insurance. 鈥淭ax con鈥�, say the Tories. 鈥淪pin and gimmicks鈥�, say the LibDems.

PS: Bit of a guddle over the motion for debate at Holyrood tomorrow. The version originally submitted by Labour鈥檚 Margaret Curran for the executive talked of 鈥渋ncreasing the powers available to the Scottish Parliament鈥� where appropriate.

Cue SNP glee. Exactly what we want, they chortled. That version has now been withdrawn. In its place, a version which still condemns independence - but merely notes the 鈥渞espective positions鈥� of the two coalition parties on further powers. Ms Curran blames a 鈥渃lerical error鈥�. Isn鈥檛 politics wonderful?

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Brown cashes in

• Brian Taylor
• 21 Mar 07, 02:29 PM

It was a Budget for an election, certainly, but not the one David Cameron thinks.

He suggested that the chancellor was cutting the basic rate of income tax in order to secure victory in the Labour leadership election. Maybe so, maybe so. But I suspect he had an eye upon an earlier contest, that for Holyrood.
Certainly, that was the view of Labour MSPs in the Holyrood canteen immediately after the budget.

(Chicken kiev the favourite choice. Rather toothsome, thanks for asking.)

As they chewed, they were already framing their local leaflets. 鈥淲ith Labour: 2p off income tax. With the SNP, 3p added on.鈥� Well, up to a point, Lord Copper. Gordon Brown has also ditched the 10p starting rate of income tax which rather takes the edge off the cut in the basic rate. And, of course, the SNP鈥檚 planned 3p Local Income Tax replaces the unpopular Council Tax, which they鈥檇 scrap.

鈥淒etails, Brian, details鈥�, said one particularly ebullient Labour MSP. Nationalist members seemed notably quieter, heading back to their computer screens to scan the small print for snags.

Mr Brown seemed determined to forestall them, sustaining the freeze on whisky duty and even deferring a hike in fuel tax until October, safely after the Holyrood contest. In terms of cash consequentials, the executive will get around 拢900,000 extra now - a decidedly limited sum. Such largesse as there is comes later in the next spending round from 2008 to 2011.

Wonder who鈥檒l be in power to dole that out in Scotland?

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