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It is a national outrage that so many people die as a result of drugs. Previously, we have had debates in Parliament about one of the issues being the cohort of people who used drugs when they were younger.
At the moment, nearly all of them will die, unless an individual is very lucky or pays privately for MRI scans, gets the disease picked up and then has one of the new treatments.
The proposals set out by the Scottish Government involve:
Increasing the basic rate and intermediate rate thresholds by 3.5%
Freezing the higher, advanced and top rate thresholds
Maintaining existing tax rates for each band.
This is linked to whisky exports, as six of the top ten destinations for whisky exports are outside of the EU, with the USA the top destination, valued at £1.1 billion in 2018.1Scotch Whisky Association. (2020, February 11).
In the 2021 election, we also had an internal party campaign called step aside brother, which was to encourage the top man on the list to step aside and let a woman stand at the top of the list.
I will add a couple of points, one of which is that leadership and tone from the top are hugely important, because people are empowered when they feel that the tone from the top aligns with what they are being told.