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Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 12:18 pm on 27 September 2001.

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Photo of Peter Peacock Peter Peacock Labour 12:18, 27 September 2001

I hope that Brian Adam—whom I genuinely welcome to the front bench—will take this opportunity, so soon after the SNP conference at which his party leader pledged to raise taxes, to tell the Parliament by how much the SNP plans to raise them. The penny for Scotland was clearly not enough; tuppence for Scotland is also clearly not enough for the SNP, nor is thruppence. The SNP wants to go higher. That is the only reason why it is arguing for so-called financial independence, which gives more scope for raising taxes even more. I urge Brian Adam to say how much and when. In this Parliament, the opportunity exists to bring forward detailed proposals, but I am perplexed as to why the SNP will not do so and will not reveal its cards fully. When he is winding up, perhaps Brian Adam could also explain why on earth, given that the SNP claims—fallaciously, in our view—that there is a £7 billion Scottish surplus, it proposes to raise Scotland's taxes. There is a clear intellectual contradiction in that, which I hope Brian Adam will take the opportunity to explain.

Only SNP members greet good news by girning. We write off health board debts and they moan; we give more to education and they girn; we give more to health and they greet. Moanin, girnin, greetin—the hallmarks of the SNP. That is why the Scottish people reject the SNP and trust this coalition with the sound stewardship of their finances.