I see from today's Greenock Telegraph that SNP list MSP Stuart McMillan - not surprisingly - is supporting the Scottish Government's proposed five year Council Tax freeze, which would mean that by 2016 the Council Tax would have been frozen for 9 years.
The decision to freeze the Council Tax is of course not one that can be taken by the Scottish Government. It is a decision for each of Scotland's 32 local authorities, or it would be if the Scottish Government had any respect for local democracy.
The fact is that they don't. Local authorities are again being told if they don't freeze the Council Tax local government funding will be cut by £70m.
It really is time to end this annual nonsense.
The Scottish Government should bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity to abolish the Council Tax. Given that they clearly do not trust local authorities to act in the best interests of their communities they should replace it with a national tax and distribute the proceeds to Councils through increased grant.
In the last Parliament they did not proceed with their proposal to replace the Council Tax with that contradiction in terms, a nationally set local income tax, as they did not have the support of other parties. Now they have an overall majority there is no reason for them not to bring forward legislation.
Mind you I won't hold my breath in anticipation. Something tells me that they may have gone cool on the idea of abolishing the Council Tax, preferring instead the short-term populism of the Council Tax freeze.
Not like the SNP to avoid difficult decisions, is it?
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