Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2015
I speak not so much as the member of the Scottish Parliament for Aberdeenshire East but as Alex from Strichen, who was moved to call the “Call Kaye” phone-in programme on the very subject that we are debating. What moved me to do that was the enthusiasm that was being displayed by Councillor Jim Gifford, the leader of Aberdeenshire Council, who seemed to want to use the magnificently enlarged electoral register as a means of hounding people for debts that were 20 years old and more.
I found three particular difficulties with Councillor Gifford’s argument. One was the fact that he seemed entirely oblivious to the fact that the pittance that was being collected by Aberdeenshire Council most certainly meant that it was in the position that Alex Rowley outlined, in which it was costing more to collect the money than was being collected. The second was the fact that he seemed unaware that much of the outstanding debt was an illusion, in that it was owed by people who either had never existed in the first place or had died in the past 23 years. It was a mythical debt, in terms of its total. The third was the fact that he seemed to be unaware that, as the minister indicated, because of the cumulative charges, people who were having the debt collected from them had probably paid it many times over, and, with regard to people who had not been paying the debt, by definition, if it was new debt, it was outlawed by the 20-year rule because—again, by definition—poll tax debt is more than 20 years old. Councillor Gifford was unaware of all of those things, hence I was moved to enter the debate on the “Call Kaye” programme.
However, that touches on the importance of the connection between non-payment and voting. It has been widely reported in the press that the Liberal Democrats owe £800,000 to the Police Service of Scotland—an £800,000 debt that they are refusing to pay. The Labour Party, the Scottish National Party, the Green Party and—for all I know—the Scottish Socialist Party pay for the security at their party conferences, and there are no debts outstanding. However, it has been widely reported that the Liberal Democrats owe £800,000. It has even been reported that the Conservative Party has an outstanding debt to the Police Service of Scotland.
I do not know whether that is a non-payment campaign. The Liberal Democrats might be short of money, but the Conservatives cannot be short of money, as their tax-evading donors ensure that they are not. However, even given those circumstances, I would never draw the conclusion that they should be stopped from voting in the Parliament because they are engaged in a non-payment campaign, deliberately or otherwise, against the Police Service of Scotland—mind you, the Liberal Democrats look like they have beaten me to it by not turning up to vote or debate in the first place. It is a very dangerous connection to make.