During Brian Monteith’s eight years as a member of the Scottish Parliament, including periods as convener of the Parliament’s powerful Audit Committee and as Conservative Finance spokesman, the Scottish Executive’s ever-burgeoning kitty rose from £16 billion to £30 billion. The parliament’s recent priority has been determining how to spend this money, prompting Monteith to pose and discuss fundamental questions about taxation and political accountability in Scotland.
Does the current system in Scotland make national and local government accountable? Is there a moral case for lower taxes, and if there is, how can it be implemented? What is the moral case in a property-owning democracy for taking the public’s money and can progressive taxation be justified to redistribute wealth? What taxes should therefore be available to the Scottish Parliament and what further powers might it require, if any, to deliver accountability – together with improved standards of living, especially for the poorest in society?
What are the range and mix of taxes that would deliver such goals – including flat income taxes, local sales taxes and a host of alternatives? And this begs the question, is financial devolution within home rule enough or is full independence required? Monteith believes the devolution settlement can and must be improved upon and offers his own recipe that would reduce taxes and deliver greater accountability in local and national government.
One of the Scottish Parliament’s more colourful and controversial members, Brian Monteith is used to swimming against the prevailing tide in Scottish politics. Cutting his teeth in student politics he then worked for Michael Forsyth, Teddy Taylor and Iain Sproat. He ran campaigns against Devolution in 1979 and 1997 and was elected to Holyrood in 1999 where he was Tory spokesman for education culture and sport, and then finance, before becoming an independent member in 2006. He is Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s powerful Audit Committee and a regular columnist in the Scottish papers commenting on economics, culture and politics.
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