There’s a farcical image – the leader of an opposition party, who forced the abandonment of a policy document, then demanding an apology – because his party blocked change:
Apology call after tax decision
Alex Salmond has come under opposition pressure to say sorry for dropping plans to replace council tax with a 3p local income tax.
Scots Labour leader Iain Gray, who tore up a copy of the SNP manifesto during question time at Holyrood, said Mr Salmond had been short-selling voters.
Ministers said legislation to bring in local income tax would not be put before the current parliament.
To quote Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story: “You really are a sad little man.”
To be fair, I’m neither coming out in support or against the SNP – but this issue really highlights the playground politics of the Scottish Parliament.
It’s sad, it’s pathetic, that when ministers should be looking to represent their constituents, they instead represent their political party allegiances. And in this case, as in so many others, the Scottish Labour party just acts as embittered, and incapable of doing anything constructive – just party posturing.
Scotland harks to the past of kings – certainly we could do with one now, if it helps remove party politics. We should have a better level of conduct from our elected representatives, instead of them acting like spoilt children on a personal marketing weekend.
