> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Should Scottish Labour bin the council tax?
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/should-scottish-labour-bin-the-council-tax/
- Published: 2008-08-03T14:08:09.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:41:20.000Z
- Author: Tom Griffin
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:41

**Tom Griffin (London,** [**OK**](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom)**):** In today's [Sunday Herald](http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2416221.0.0.php?ref=opendemocracy.net), former Labour Scottish Finance Minister Tom McCabe delivers a brutally frank assessment of Labour's diminished place in Scotland's political landscape, and one of the starkest calls yet for the Scottish Party to set its own agenda:

*So how can Scottish Labour respond? First, with a leader who is seen to be in charge, taking responsibility and being prepared to say and do what is best for Scots, no matter who it might upset.*

*A leader who is prepared to publicly ask the government in Westminster, irrespective of its political colour, why companies such as Shell can make £8billion profit in six months while Scots can scarcely afford to fill up cars and vans.*

*A leader who will ask why we are not taxing gas companies that are making billions at the same time as they are doubling the energy bills of Scottish families.*

*A leader who wants to have responsibility for raising the money their government spends and be chastened by that accountability in the process.*

*Finally, a leader who accepts that the council tax has become an unfair burden: a tax that breaks the understanding of proportionality between the government and the governed.*

McCabe's message has [not been universally welcomed](http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2416221.0.0.php?ref=opendemocracy.net):

*John Robertson MP, secretary of the Scottish Labour group at Westminster, said: "This sounds like Tom is looking to position himself for a job. I am disappointed in him. I thought he was much more of a comrade than that, but he obviously isn't."*

While McCabe is critical of the SNP's proposed local income tax, his intervention will make it more difficult for Labour to defend a position that is subjected to some searching criticism by [Joan McAlpine](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/article4448318.ece?ref=opendemocracy.net) in the Sunday Times.

*Oppositions must hold governments to account, so you would expect Labour to scrutinise the SNP’s plans. But Labour refuse to offer a progressive alternative to an existing system that causes widespread hardship. Worse, they gleefully support Westminster’s refusal to hand over Scotland’s £433m share of council-tax benefit, meaning a shortfall in revenue under the new system. So Scottish taxpayers would continue to fund council-tax benefit in England and Wales without receiving any themselves. Perhaps one of the Scottish Labour leadership candidates would like to explain why this is a vote winner?*