As Chancellor Rachel Reeves gets set for a manifesto-busting tax raid, Edinburgh’s Poverty Commission demands more taxpayers’ money to hit an unachievable target, writes Herald columnist John McLellan

We’ve all got to do our bit, honked Chancellor Rachel Reeves as the full extent of my tax liabilities was made clear. I’m sure Herald readers will be delighted to learn I’m more than satisfied my contribution to the greater good is significant.

Like millions of other taxpayers, I’m expected to be happy that Ms Reeves is about to drive a coach and horses through oft repeated manifesto tax promises , which in retrospect was less an honest desire to grow the economy and let us keep more of our own hard-earned money, but more a complete political misjudgement that it was necessary to unseat a Conservative Party with which the public was manifestly tired.

Ms Reeves seems to expect those of us slogging away in the private sector to pretend we didn’t notice the vast no-strings public sector pay deals shaken from the magic money tree. The gratitude in return is demands for it to be shaken even more − hence the latest strike threat from “resident” doctors − and for us to be resigned to Labour’s huge majority of MPs on shaky majorities voting down any attempt to rein in the ever-expanding welfare bill, and with it any chance of getting the burgeoning army of jobless working age people away from daytime TV and into tax-paying........

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