Guy Stenhouse

There is no compelling justification for the state to give tax relief on pension contributions at more than the basic rate of tax. There is some argument to provide relief at 25% or even 30% so that those who pay basic rate tax have an even greater incentive to save but relief at 40% or 45% - No. The country cannot afford it and we simply should not do it.

The Scottish Finance Secretary announced a series of emergency measures to reduce current net spending by around £1 billion.

Party conferences are odd things. By their nature they are a gathering of the faithful who fervently believe in what their party stands for.

In 1945 Allied forces advancing from both East and West smashed their way into Germany.

One of the most irritating media trends is the increasing use of hyperbole. An easy example is the climate 'emergency'. In an emergency you don’t eat, you don’t do anything else except deal with the emergency and you might jump out of a window knowing you will probably break your leg. We do not have a climate change emergency.

The Labour party are back in Government in Westminster and with a share of the vote in Scotland up nearly 20 per cent.

Labour’s triumph in the UK General Election is a key moment in our recent political history. What marks it out is not just the scale of the victory but that it brings to office a party which has spent 14 long years in the wilderness.

In Scotland, the LibDems will double to at least 4, probably 5. The Conservatives will fall back and will get 5 at most. The Greens and Reform will get nothing. Labour will get 28, the SNP will get 20.

Labour worships devoutly at the shrine of the NHS but will also spend more on education and defence amongst other things. They have socialist-pleasing measures such as a spite tax on school fees and a stricter regime of taxation for foreign nationals based in the UK.

Governments have a bad habit of taking action which achieves the opposite of what they are, or should be, trying to do. Nowhere is this more true than in the housing market in general and homes for rent in particular.