To want to move to England because of Scottish tax.

[Nogg]

Is anyone else thinking of moving to England because of tax. I’m a single parent and I am paying 7k extra tax a year. The place I live is run down. I really want to move but the only issue kids settled in ( failing) Scottish education system. I wonder if anything will change at next election? Hate SNP and what they have done to Scotland.

@Easypeelersareterrible

If anyone is choosing to relocate from Edinburgh to the dales or the Lake District then it is more likely that’s a lifestyle choice than a tax one.

The other question is a bit ridiculous, apart from a few very specific central areas where houses are rare then the question should be where can’t you buy a family house in Edinburgh for £1m?

Stockbridge

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150650039

Colinton

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150074831

Murrayfield

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154416962

Morningside

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151867580

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145157141

Don’t forget to add on the 100k lbtt!

nope- i remember it all- ran concurrent to the 80s boom- co thatcher.NOT everyone suffered. Those that thrived most probably still are.
The days of casuals and gangwar have been replaced with drugs. For over 20 years heroin was the worst of it and stole the lives of many. With methadone madness now on its way out theyve turned to crack. splendid. Every LA has its bi-products of not for profit organisations n charity start ups "supporting the disadvantaged". why is that?
The SNP commandeered politics for years proffessing independence as the way forward.
Given their abysiml track record during their time with limited power its a blessing they missed out.Not one of their promises cme good.
Schools are underfunded, 48 mth wit list for mental health ,children-who re our future are being failed at every level. Poverty,homelessness,etc

Why should you receive benefits if you are a high earner?

The 'free' tuition fees is a bit of a red herring though unless a student can survive university without taking any loans out then an extra tuition fees loan won't make a blind bit of difference so I would rather that was scrapped and the money was used elsewhere in Scotland. This would also help the universities as the government give them a platry amount and call it full tuition fees.

For a student coming from a deprived background I’m fairly sure the prospect of being an extra £36k in debt would qualify as a ‘blind bit’ of difference.

I don’t think I should. I’m complaining at working all the time and paying so much tax which in part funds others tax credits for part time hours.

I would agree with posters above that gang violence is still very much an issue and drug use is horrific in Scotland. The death rate hits the headlines but beyond that is a higher rate of suicide, premature death from other causes, child neglect, drug related crime. I find this very depressing. Setting up one drug consumption room in Glasgow is going to make very little difference. It's how easily and cheaply street drugs are available in certain communities that's the problem. The SNP seem totally unable to get a grip on Scottish drug use.

@RoamingGnome Im fairly neutral with all political parties in Scotland, as in I believe all of them are shit.

But I struggle to see how the SNP can change the culture here, there’s always been an addiction culture.

Heroin in the 80’s/90’s was a major issue that’s continued up to the present day and our entire culture is soaked in alcohol, which despite not making the headlines is the deadliest drug we have.

Plus there’s a cocaine epidemic in practically every developed European country, if there is anything a political party can do about this then every one in Europe has failed.

While the SNP have clearly made some mistakes they do not have control of drug policy to actually make proper changes along the lines of Portugal for example.

The minimum pricing policy does seem to have had an impact on alcohol consumption.

The fact is that the root causes of addiction are poverty and deprivation, until this goes, which realistically never will, we’ll be fighting a losing battle no matter who’s in charge.

I do not want drugs to be decriminalised in Scotland. Look how well we handle alcohol addiction. I do not want Scotland to be a nation of drug addicts.

Perhaps if we had better outcomes for people and for us to live a good, better, fulfilled life then taking drugs would be less appealing? But that’s hard.

All very well saying so many more young people are studying at university, but do they stay the course and is there a good job for them at the end. In both my dc experience, no there is not a graduate job in Scotland and they have relocated. Brain drain?

There are reasons why we struggle for good jobs here. The SNP are terrible at supporting private enterprise. There’s a reason why Grangemouth is closing and jobs plummeting in Aberdeenshire. The rUK gave the hospitality industry a 75% rates discount to help them recover from covid. The SNP got that too but the money went down the back of the sofa instead of to the pubs and cafes. The Scottish government policies has been named by pubs as the reason why they are closing.

The SNP have one policy - independence - and have no other policies.

Scottish MSPs need to be honest about Scottish attitudes to drink and drugs - the scale of use and deaths is so much higher than anywhere else in Europe - copying Portugal won't help, it's not the same scenario. Problem is, the SNP can't admit that there are entrenched problems in Scottish society as that doesn't fit their narrative of it all being England's fault.

@RoamingGnome Im struggling here, on one hand you’ve recognised that there’s an overwhelming culture of addiction based on attitudes here that if we’re honest has been prevalent for centuries, which is true.

Yet on the other you’re saying it is the SNP’s fault for not admitting there are entrenched problems here, which isn’t really true.

It was the SNP who introduced minimum pricing, logically if they didn’t want to admit there are issues then they wouldn’t have done that.

Same as the support for treatment rooms etc..

There’s always 2 sides though as they were responsible for a cut in addiction services funding, but realistically that’s more due to financial pressures than anything else.

Cultural change is extremely difficult but there is progress being made, young people are drinking much less than previous generations, but the results of this won’t be seen for years.

Portugal may or may not be the answer, the point I was making is that it is hard to apply meaningful changes when you don’t control much of the policy.

I’m probably in the rare position of not having deeply entrenched political views, I’m the classic floating voter, but I don’t think the SNP, Labour, Cons or God/Buddha/Allah themselves has a hope of solving Scotland’s relationship with alcohol/drugs.

My fundamental point is that legalising drugs will not do any good. Making harmful substances more easily available will not help. Drug consumption rooms may prevent a few deaths, but I'm sceptical about it having much of an impact- will the highest risk heavy polysubstance users actually go there? It's pretty difficult to find any meaningful stats on how naloxone availability has impacted on deaths from overdoses - there's no clear evidence it's been of benefit. Central government policy is irrelevant when the problem is harmful substances being incredibly cheap and easy to access - only better policing will help with that, which is under Scottish government control. Getting supply lines under control & making drug use less socially acceptable is the problem.

They could perhaps listen to the likes of Annemarie Ward, one of the key voices on the front line, and increase funding for addiction recovery units:

www.sundaypost.com/fp/annemarie-ward/

@RoamingGnome

I don’t disagree, the consumption rooms will have very little effect in reality.

I think where I differ from you is that I honestly do not think that any policing will ever have an impact on drug consumption.

There are many countries with much harsher laws, including death penalties, huge sentences and have multiple extremely well-funded law enforcement agencies who have all failed to combat the drugs problem.

I don’t think police Scotland will be able to solve a problem that no other force in the world has, it’s a fantasy to believe they can have anything other than a temporary impact.

People will always take drugs, they always have and always will.

Maybe when we accept that as a reality we can begin to treat that problem rather than try and create some drug free fantasy land that will never exist.

@Easypeelersareterrible ’Increase funding’ would be a solution to many things in the country to be fair.

While I respect what Anne-Marie believes her opinion is based on her own experiences of achieving success through programmes that have worked for her, but not for many others.

When you’re a hammer, everything is a nail.

In reality there’s as many correct approaches as there are addicts, not helpful for creating policy but it’s the truth.

I do think the Scottish government cannot plead poverty when it comes to any of their current projects when they just waste so much money. The NHS costs so much less to run than the SNHS. Our public sector is huge here, the pay bill is massive. So much waste. If they wanted to tackle drugs effectively they need to look at waste, take some hard decisions and run the country properly like grown ups. But they don’t.

The physical geography of Scotland means everything will always be more expensive to run. The cost per pupil of multiple small schools covering small populations is greater, providing multiple single doctor health practices to mean less people have to travel 100 plus miles to see a GP is higher, collecting bins on multiple small islands is expensive etc etc. If Scotland only supported people living below the Central Belt it could be much more effective. But I can't see that being a vote winner.

What do you think the £7k tax OP is paying goes towards?

@Easypeelersareterrible So how exactly would you ‘tackle’ drug use when every other country in the world has failed?

You’re placing impossible expectations on any government if you think that’s a reasonable thing to achieve.

Duterte gave his police and militias the power to kill anyone involved in drug smuggling/dealing in the Philippines.

According to the UN 30’000 people were killed in this ‘war on drugs’.

Did it work?

Well no, they’ve got a higher drug problem than ever.

But you think cutting waste in the NHS will give the Scottish Government the resources to solve the drug problem?

A problem that the FBI, CIA, ATF in the USA failed to win, despite having funding and political support that any British police force could only have wet dreams about.

Sure, John Swinney or Russell Findlay will cut a few middle management layers on the NHS and ride in on a white horse and become the only leader to banish drugs.

I have only skimmed the thread. £7k extra a year must be a significant salary, though. My googling gives me £180-£200k a year. If you earn that much, does £7k extra really make a difference and would you really rather rely on tax credits for part-time hours? If so, then surely you can take a lower paid job and then the issue is sorted 🤷🏻‍♀️
I am a single parent and pay 2k extra tax a year, with all the running around and exhaustion that entails and I just take the view that I would rather have my income and security. However, I do get annoyed at the way in which taxpayers money is wasted in Scotland sometimes, but that is a separate issue. I personally am no longer convinced that devolution is a good idea but that is also another issue.

@Talulahalula Call me a cynic but I think anyone who claims to earn that amount and lives in a house worth close to £800k is unlikely to live in a ‘run-down area’.

Then there’s the ‘The area I live in is more expensive than anything except London’ claim.

Which is a total juxtaposition, you can’t live in the most expensive area in the country and claim it’s a run-down area.

There is no area in Scotland more expensive than the majority of desirable places in the south east.

Think this is more about having a moan than actually having any logic behind it.

Or it’s just a lot of nonsense.

Where I live is not commonly regarded as a dump on paper….. but it’s too busy, roads and pavement are a disgrace, the facilities and infrastructure including schools are run down, and there is no maintenance the weeds are left to grow and grass not collected and rubbish on the run down pavements is unattended.

However it seems the general opinion is that I should not mind paying thousands extra a year compared to already high taxes down south.

Or if I do mind I should just leave or work part time.

I do mind … so I might leave. However high rate payers pay the majority of the national tax intake …. so if everyone feels like me the tax burden will be shifted down to lower income levels.

Enjoy your bus passes and free prescriptions!

I don't imagine you will be missed.