Pick and mix not on the Bill
It's a feather in the breeze, open to influence from the subsequent political climate.
But as of today Local Income Tax just looks a little less likely in Scotland.
Did you clock Thursday night's vote at Holyrood?
Broadly, Parliament instructed Ministers to present a range of options for council revenue raising rather than simply the Local Income Tax favoured by the SNP.
I freely confess I am at a loss to understand precisely how that can be done within the terms of the motion.
That is because it talked of a Bill featuring such a range of proposals. In all honesty, you cannot have single transferable legislation.
You cannot prescribe the law by pick and mix.
However, I suppose the actual import is to confirm, once more, that there is not a Parliamentary majority for either the Council Tax or the alternative Local Income Tax.
The Greens are key to this - even though they are but two in the present Parliament. The SNP and LibDems favour sundry forms of LIT, although negotiation could bring them closer.
Labour and the Tories favour Council Tax, with varying reforms. In the middle, the Greens want Land Value Taxation.
By chance, I happened to be attending the Green Energy awards in Edinburgh last night and took the opportunity to chat to sundry folk of a Green Party persuasion who were in attendance.
To a person, they said they disliked Local Income Tax - and, if anything, had been confirmed in their view by the scrutiny which the current controversy has occasioned.
Doesn't tell us their party's final position, of course. Formally, they are seeking a compromise which might incorporate elements of their own policy.
Bit of a pointer, though, isn't it? Behind the scenes, of course, there is alternative political manoeuvring under way.
Privately, the SNP would rather like it if LIT were thwarted - if and only if they could then blame either Labour in the Scottish Parliament or Labour at Westminster for withholding council tax benefit should Scotland change tax systems.
Labour tacticians think that LIT won them votes in Glenrothes - and they believe they can make it more unpopular still by targeting aspirational families.
At that point, they believe, they would be seen as rescuing Scotland by blocking it at Holyrood.
Isn't politics wonderful?
I'm 
Comments
or to comment.