A Guest Post from Allan Petrie, Liberate Scotland.
They’re calling it a responsible budget a caring budget, a budget that “protects working people” . But for millions across these islands and especially here in Scotland, this was nothing more than a Paul Daniels budget, pure sleight of hand, look over here while we quietly take from you over there.
Rachel Reeves stood at the despatch box pretending to be a protector of the vulnerable but what she delivered was a masterclass in political misdirection, a budget that looks kind on the surface yet quietly drags people deeper into poverty.
This wasn’t relief, it was staged illusion. We were told this budget was about “support.” Yet in reality,
• Any headline tax tweaks are swallowed instantly by rising rents, energy costs, council tax and food prices.
• Benefits remain capped in real terms, meaning inflation continues to eat away at the poorest.
• Disabled people face tighter assessments, harsher conditionality and yet more pressure to “prove” their worth to a system designed to doubt them.
• Carers are still treated as unpaid labour rather than the backbone of the care system.
• Pensioners get just enough to stop a revolt but nowhere near enough to live with dignity.
It’s economic theatre, a shiny coin palmed in one hand while the other empties your pockets, you’re meant to feel better, you’re not meant to be better off.
This budget is not neutral for Scotland, it is structurally anti Scottish because it is built around the economic needs of the South East of England and then imposed on everyone else.
Scotland did not design this system. We do not control,
• National Insurance
• All income tax powers
• Welfare policy
• Energy pricing
• Employment law
• Pensions
Yet we pay the price for every bad decision made at UK Government level, Scotland is energy rich, resource rich and workforce rich, but we are kept revenue poor by design. Our oil, gas, renewables and grid infrastructure feed the Treasury, not the communities that generate the wealth and then we’re told there’s “no money left” for,
• Disabled care
• NHS recovery
• Local authorities
• Social housing
• Poverty reduction
It’s financial colonialism to protect the south east of England.
Every time a Westminster Chancellor stands up to “help the vulnerable,” we hear the same lie in a new accent.
Scotland suffers three times over,
• From UK-wide austerity decisions we did not vote for.
• From a devolved budget squeezed by Westminster underfunding.
• From a cost-of-living crisis driven by UK energy and market policy.
This budget locks that injustice in for another year, we are told to be grateful for crumbs from a table we never sit at.
Let’s be honest about what this budget really does,
It delays collapse without fixing the damage.
It keeps just enough people afloat to avoid mass revolt.
It keeps councils on life support.
It keeps families one bill away from disaster instead of already underwater.
That is not protection that is managed decline.
For years we were told independence was about ambition, identity, optimism and hope, today it is about something far more basic, Survival.
Survival for:
• Disabled people facing cruelty masquerading as reform.
• Pensioners choosing between heating and eating.
• Working families trapped in permanent insecurity.
• Carers working full-time for free.
• Communities stripped of public services year after year.
As long as Scotland remains chained to a Westminster budget process designed for another country’s economy, we will always be managed, never empowered.
This budget proves one brutal truth, Scotland will never be a priority inside the UK , only an afterthought and net contributer for the UK Treasury spreadsheet.
Paul Daniels ended his tricks with “And that’s magic.”
This budget ends with,
• More food banks
• More hidden homelessness
• More untreated illness
• More working poor
• More despair in communities already stretched to breaking point
The illusion is over, You can’t sleight-of-hand your way out of structural poverty, you can’t magic away the consequences of a broken Union and you can’t protect people with a system designed to ration dignity.
This was not a people’s budget, this was not a progressive budget, this was not a Scottish budget, this was a Paul Daniels budget, now you see fairness, now you don’t.
The longer Scotland accepts this illusion, the longer our most vulnerable will continue to pay the real price.
Independence is no longer about want, it is now about need,
it is about survival.
A fine analysis from AP, but nothing unusual in a mature colonial setting such as Scotland. What else might be expected of what was by default, an anti-Scottish budget.
The landscape has changed and is continuing to change.
Democracy is s fallacy. All the political parties are the same. Say one thing but do another. They do not represent the wishes of the electorate. Rather they represent the interests of the monied corporate interests.
Sir Keir Starmer is the latest Prime Minister to reflect that. He’s a placeman, a front for the real electorate who lurk behind the scenes. Just like our pretend First Minister John Swinney.
But change, big change is coming. Totalitarian surveillance, control and manipulation is being put into place. And at its heart digital ID where every aspect of one’s life us recorded and watched. Where all that you read or view is managed to feed whatever needs to be fed, is fed to a hapless populace. Where every aspect of your being frombehat you spend your money on, to what websites you visit, to what you participate in, to where you go, are all profiled.
And free movement. Well the ipso facto pass laws are already clear at ports and airports. But that is only the start. Covid restrictions showed us how access to travel, or to public places could be restricted. And now the police across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland physically arrest with impunity thousands of innocent people fir daring to object to the genocide in Gaza.
But these are the action if a government in Westminster supposedly voted in to reflect the people. And make no mistake the British military are still active supporting the Israeli IDF.
And then we all get excited by the theatre of this smoke and mirrors budget that changes nothing as life for most gets harder and poorer.
And soon if Starmer acting on behalf of his backers gets his way we will be at war with Russia as we ramp up big time to arm. The war drums are beating, we are being focused day and daily to the righteous fight that lies ahead. Plans for conscription and lockdown of all dissent are prepared ready to implement.
And we think we live in a democracy.
For as long as the threshold of the tax bands are kept the same, this budget is nothing but an increase in income tax by stealth and by the back door. If that wasn’t bad enough, Rachel from Accounts will be freezing the bands for around 5 years. So this will be one heck of an increase in income tax.
You can increase income tax directly by increasing the threshold of each band, or indirectly by keeping the same thresholds instead of raising them in line with inflation. How much would be the accumulated inflation of 5 years? That is the extra amount this parasitical gov will be siphoning from us. As if they have not siphoned already enough.
Rachel from accounts boasted about increasing the minimum wage as if it was the biggest act of generosity since sliced bread was invented. But this is nothing other than the move of a cynic. It will cost Starver’s government nothing in economic terms because it will not be the UK gov who will pay the extra money to bring those wages up to the new “minimum” level. It will be either the already financially starved public services or private business.
What the cynical Rachel from Accounts has simply done is to force them to pay extra, so she can then harvest the extra income tax. With such “increase” in wages, people in minimum wages might be thrown into the next tax band, meaning their so called “increase” is in name only and effectively a tool for Rachel from Accounts to siphon even more money from Public services and Business using those in minimum wages as the carriers.
She is also reducing the amount of salary a person can sacrifice to pay for their pension. So we have been told for years that we have to “live within our means” and bear the brunt of the pensions, and now this greedy cynic goes and bulldozes that too for the sake of harvesting a few more pounds from each worker. Because let’s not make a mistake here, she is stealing it form the workers. This decrease of how much of your salary you can sacrifice (ie without paying NI) is at all practical effects an increase in the amount of NI insurance you have to pay. In other words, this cynic is increasing national insurance by the back door.
Pensioners that have built a pension pot on top of the statutory pay will have to pay income tax if. above the minimum threshold. That is a given. But because this chancellor has frozen the bands, what this means is that the amount those pensioners would have to pay for their pension in income tax now will be more than what they would have to pay in income tax for the same amount of money when they were working. In other words, they are being double taxed.
We are so overtaxed that we are fast approaching the point where hiding the notes in the mattress and use them when you need them will become the best option.
So this woman has just increased both taxes, income and NI, in one go. In addition, she has created what looks like pension tax by the back door. She may have used unorthodox/indirect ways, but they are after all the move of a cynic that uses the back door because she does not have the guts to admit that she is deliberately breaking even more manifesto promises.
Deliberately ignoring inflation when it comes to the tax bands and forcing people to pay more NI on the money they are putting aside for retirement is at all practical effects an active increase in income and NI taxes. I do not know who this useless chancellor thought she was fooling.
Then there is the thing of how much a person can put on a cash isa. Rachel from Accounts has decided that she is not going to treat everybody that is in the same situation in the same way. The over 65s can put aside more than those under 65. In other words, she is now directly discriminating against those under 65 specifically because of their age.
Well, isn’t age one of the protected characteristics in the equality Act? How is it that none of the remaining 649 Mps had anything to say about this? Did they lose their voices as well as their backbones now?
If the tax bands do not increase with inflation, any “salary increase” will become just an illusion if you are thrown into the next tax band. An increase in paper only. I guess that the way of counteracting this is by going part time and reducing your working hours accordingly. Because, why should you work for a pittance per hour once you reach certain threshold?
I do not know why they say your salary is 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 or whatever. It is not. A massive chunk of that is immediately taken in the form of taxes before it ever reaches your bank account. You never see that money, so that money is never yours in the first place. I think it is a double entry accounting trick to hide the fact that it is the money the parasitic government makes from you.
I am aware that the tax bands we have in Scotland are not the same as the ones in England. So let’s see now what this SNP colonial administration does about it. Probably they will do the exact same as they have done in the last 10 years to progress independence, absolutely nothing. And then they will whine and pretend they are better than the colonial gov in London.