Nappies, rhymes and trampolines

The Burt Commission has suggested that Council Taxes in Scotland be replaced by a 1% annual levy on the value of one's house. This proposal hasn't exactly been appreciated by the tax-consuming class now that we're in the run-up to an election. And a few journalists have been asking some rather obvious questions.

In the Sunday Times Jenny Hjul writes:

It is not a solution to the tax problem that they should be reviewing, it is the problem itself.

Why do the councils need so much more money?

Every local newspaper carries evidence of local job creation schemes: just how many development workers, environmental wardens, “height awareness” officers, real nappy instructors, “professional assistants (trees)”, or “ walking co-ordinators” does Scotland need?

Most taxpayers would gladly forego the services of all of these in exchange for a cut in council taxes

Ah, but lots of voters don't pay any taxes.

Rather more robustly, we get Gerald Warner in Scotland on Sunday:

Where does the money go? On politically correct nonsense, is the answer. Clackmannanshire raised council tax by 4.9% this year. It now spends just 97p per meal in care homes, down from £1.05 last year. Yet the council is creating a post of "writer in residence" with a salary of £31,000. Last year it was looking for a "nappy officer" to crusade against disposable nappies.

It's no better up north:

Aberdeenshire council recently spent £35,000 employing two "nursery rhyme promoters"; two months ago it hired a "trampoline officer"

And as for the numpties themselves:

The latest proposal is to award Scottish councillors basic salaries of £15,452, rising to between £30,905 and £51,608 for council leaders.

Send them up chimneys, I say.

All very sensible stuff from the two writers, but there's always dear old Iain Macwhirter in the Sunday Herald who's very keen on a property tax. Those opposed are guilty of "greed". By the way Iain, Sir Peter Burt isn't "the former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland"; he's the former Governor of the Bank of Scotland. We persons of greed know the difference.

Not to worry, Mr Macwhirter wins this year's prize for deep political understanding:

And what if prices fall? Well, then people would pay less – obviously.

Obviously.