Scottish notes

Local finance: The rating system in Scotland is admitted renerally to be both inequitable and confused. The freeze has introduced another element of farce into the situation, putting all local treasurers, faced as they are with rocketing costs and ever-mounting responsibilities, into an impossible dilemma. Previous to July 20th government policy was that council house rents should go up, and to enforce this deimand the threat was made that councils who refused to increase them to whnt was considered a satisfactory level would be deprived of their equalisation grant- the subsidy which covers the difference between the councilts income and its commitments. Now, however, the call is for a freeze in council rents, but councils who do so are still subject to the equalisation grant penalty. The councils caught in this manner therefore have the choice of getting their erant- by increasing rents, or complying with the government's appeal, losing the grant and making up the difference by pushing up the rates. Hither way the luckless citizens will hove to dig deeper into their frozen pay packets. In practice the tendency appenrs to be towards solving this ludicrous situation by the second alternative; the recent revaluation it has been calculated, will increase income from rates by 18%, This too, it appears, has been condemned by the brilliant planners at the Scottish Office. ; The llighlands: The long survey of the Highlands and 7sla.ids contained in the issue of the ""conomist" of 17-25 September was offensive and patronising in the highest degree. Two quotations, “hich in no way misrepr esent the tone of the article, may be cited: "Yiggins Teape's management must dread the idea of having to act as nanny to © community." "It was started.... to relieve the unemployment of the natives. Often now there are too few natives left to do the necessary work." It is undeniable that the “ighlands present a serious problem to the British economy, and that a relatively unproductive rea, surviving by subsidies representa a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. The "“conomist" however, is unable to see beyond this, «nd ferociously attacks every aspect of Highland life as econonically unjustified. This is the only criterion allowed, no effort being made to strike a balance between cost and s@cial desirability. When it tries to indicate the roots of the problem its cssessment is even worse. The over-riding drawback and curse of the Vighlands is the fact that so much of it is preserved as a playrround for the aristocracy, in the shnpe of sisantic hunting estates. The "Economist" does not ignore this completely- it would be impossible to do so~ but it underplays it as far as possible and presses the entire responsinility onto the feckless, laZy ‘ighlanders, and sentimental, muddled authorities. No mention whatever is made of the proposal by the crofters! unions for state control of land in the Hishlands. The writers of this survey disvlay a zealous glee in emphasising the extent of the problems, the analysis is almost entirely destructive, responsibility is misplaced, such solutions as are proposed are entirely piecemeal, and any hint of understanding or sympathy for the “ighlanders' predicament is completely absent.