Council tax is an unfair and out-of-date system that should have been reformed years ago. Successive governments at Westminster and Holyrood have dodged responsibility by allowing it to continue.
The SNP’s determination to freeze council tax year-on-year over the last decade has also created a false impression of how much should be paid.
Now ordinary households face the prospect of paying ever higher bills while local authorities provide fewer and fewer services. And it comes at a time when many families are already struggling to deal with soaring inflation.
You only need to look at the condition of our pavements and roads to see councils lack the funding to function properly. Shuttered community centres and swimming pools are further proof that town halls often can’t provide basic services.
There is a strong argument that the wealthiest in our society should be paying more in tax to help repair our fractured communities. But simply raising council tax is a blunt tool that will cause as much damage to hardworking Scots as it will in fixing years of under-investment.
The council tax system is based solely on a property’s value and not on an individual’s ability to pay. That means multi-millionaires contribute as much as someone in a home valued at £212,000.
Scots will deeply resent being asked to pay ever higher bills to an unfair council tax system that fails to deliver even adequate public services.
Households deserve better than the chaotic local authority system they currently have to put up with.
One of the greats
Craig Brown’s record with the national side is remarkable.
He managed Scotland to the final stages of two major tournaments, the Euros in 1996 and the World Cup two years later. And he was also part of coaching teams that reached the finals of three other tournaments.
SFA president Mike Mulraney is right to say that Broon, as he was affectionately known, deserves his place in the pantheon of great coaches.
Many of the tributes paid following the announcement of his death yesterday recognised those football achievements.
But a recurring theme was the esteem in which he was held by those lucky enough to be around him.
He was always generous with his time and retained an unquenchable enthusiasm for football his whole life.
He was a fiercely proud Scot who represented his country with dignity and wanted others to do the same.
The warmth of the tributes made by everyone from players to politicians show what he meant to so many people.
RIP Broon.
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