Originally Posted by
Easy Street
1) Service personnel based outside Scotland during the last Holyrood election and subsequently assigned to Lossiemouth took no part in the democratic process which resulted in the recent tax increase. The 'democratic choice' argument advanced by an earlier poster is entirely bogus.
2) The fact that the proceeds of the tax rise are being used, in part, to fund a public sector pay rise makes the issue doubly toxic given that service personnel will not be included, Armed Forces pay being a matter for Westminster.
Now that the matter has been brought to light I can't see it passing the political 'smell test' and some kind of fudged solution seems inevitable. One would hope that any funds used to compensate personnel stationed in Scotland will come from Holyrood's newly-enlarged coffers and not the MoD's already-stretched ones.
It will be interesting to see how they do play it as there are definitely some potential poo traps. Give an allowance for extra costs in Scotland and no doubt others will try to argue for allowances elsewhere e.g. reintroduction of London allowances that were largely scrapped to fund austerity. Worst case, recognising regional differences could well be seized on by those who oppose nationwide public sector pay agreements. For once I actually have a degree of sympathy for the Pay Colonels trying to unravel this one without triggering second & third order consequences.