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Is now the anti Scotland office and politically campaigning against Scotland

Remembering that Scotland as an EU member will be part of any trade deal with RUK and the EU

 
 

Did you know that Scotland’s trade with the rest of the UK is worth 4 times more than its trade with the EU?

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1 hour ago, Ally Bongo said:

Is now the anti Scotland office and politically campaigning against Scotland

Remembering that Scotland as an EU member will be part of any trade deal with RUK and the EU

 
 

Did you know that Scotland’s trade with the rest of the UK is worth 4 times more than its trade with the EU?

Don't let facts get in the way of your nationalistic agenda 

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2 hours ago, DoonTheSlope said:

Don't let facts get in the way of your nationalistic agenda 

Facts and agenda - two things you should really concentrate on

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25 minutes ago, Parklife said:

Listening to FMQ's yesterday i heard that Police Scotland is the only police force in the UK who are being made to pay VAT. 

Anyone able to elaborate exactly why this is? 

 

Think it was due to the way it was setup or something.

UK Govt have refused to budge on attempts to have them exempt from it, like every other Police force in the UK.

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1 hour ago, Parklife said:

Listening to FMQ's yesterday i heard that Police Scotland is the only police force in the UK who are being made to pay VAT. 

Anyone able to elaborate exactly why this is? 

 

Scottish fire and rescue to. 

 

Still not quite sure why though 

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49 minutes ago, Cove_Sheep said:

Think it was due to the way it was setup or something.

UK Govt have refused to budge on attempts to have them exempt from it, like every other Police force in the UK.

Bizarre in the extreme. Ruth Davidson's refusal to call for an end to it yesterday was shameful. Party politics must be more important to her than improving public services. 

Still, she can sit on a tank, drink a pint and hit a decent penalty, so who gives a feck that she's a horrible individual. 

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4 hours ago, Parklife said:

Listening to FMQ's yesterday i heard that Police Scotland is the only police force in the UK who are being made to pay VAT. 

Anyone able to elaborate exactly why this is? 

 

It's due to the vagaries of the VAT regulations, effectively "public" bodies which are funded through local government are VAT exempt whereas those which are funded via Central Government are not.

So when the SG combined all the regional police forces into one single force it then started to attract VAT as it was now centrally funded.  To be fair, this was known at the time but the SG pushed on presumably on the basis that the cost savings they would make from combining the forces would outweigh the additional cost and/or they probably thought that it would be something they could sort out later.

However, both the PSNI and National Crime Agency, both of which are centrally funded by Stormont and Westminster respectively have exemptions and legislation has been amended on other occasions to grant exemptions such as Academy schools in England.

It seems counter-intuitive that any public funded body should pay VAT as it really is giving with one hand and taking away with the other.  Pretty sure that the SNP tried to put this in as an amendment to the ScotlNd Bill 2016 but the Westminster government refuses to even look at Police Scotland - and Fire and Rescue - their argument seems to be a combination of "we told you so", "nah, nah, nah, we're not listening" and SNPBad, and of course Labour are doing nothing either.  

There is really no justifiable reason for this anomalous situation to exist.

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8 minutes ago, aaid said:

 

So when the SG combined all the regional police forces into one single force

 

as far as i recall , the Tories supported this as well.  it was only the Lib umbs that were opposed to a single police force.....

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36 minutes ago, stocky said:

as far as i recall , the Tories supported this as well.  it was only the Lib umbs that were opposed to a single police force.....

Indeed, another inconvenient truth that gets overlooked.  TBH, I'm surprised that they - the Ruth Davidson Party - haven't put pressure on the UK government to sort this out as it just gives the SG an out whenever they complain about Police Scotland.

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1 hour ago, aaid said:

Indeed, another inconvenient truth that gets overlooked.  TBH, I'm surprised that they - the Ruth Davidson Party - haven't put pressure on the UK government to sort this out as it just gives the SG an out whenever they complain about Police Scotland.

That would involve an iota of political nous or some common sense.  to do that would be good for Scotland and therefore they think good for the SNP...

 

They exist to shout SNPBAAAD, and have no idea how to do anything else, they are blinded by their own British Nationalism.

 

 

 

Edited by stocky
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3 hours ago, stocky said:

as far as i recall , the Tories supported this as well.  it was only the Lib umbs that were opposed to a single police force.....

P20 2011 tory manifesto goo.gl/5VLf1w

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22 hours ago, aaid said:

It's due to the vagaries of the VAT regulations, effectively "public" bodies which are funded through local government are VAT exempt whereas those which are funded via Central Government are not.

So when the SG combined all the regional police forces into one single force it then started to attract VAT as it was now centrally funded.  To be fair, this was known at the time but the SG pushed on presumably on the basis that the cost savings they would make from combining the forces would outweigh the additional cost and/or they probably thought that it would be something they could sort out later.

However, both the PSNI and National Crime Agency, both of which are centrally funded by Stormont and Westminster respectively have exemptions and legislation has been amended on other occasions to grant exemptions such as Academy schools in England.

It seems counter-intuitive that any public funded body should pay VAT as it really is giving with one hand and taking away with the other.  Pretty sure that the SNP tried to put this in as an amendment to the ScotlNd Bill 2016 but the Westminster government refuses to even look at Police Scotland - and Fire and Rescue - their argument seems to be a combination of "we told you so", "nah, nah, nah, we're not listening" and SNPBad, and of course Labour are doing nothing either.  

There is really no justifiable reason for this anomalous situation to exist.

Thanks for that. :ok: 

As you say, seems unjustifiable. 

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