Welfare spend doesn't add up

IT'S been obvious for some time that the SNP's welfare spending is out of control.

- Rachael Hamilton

By the decade's end, the annual bill will be almost £10billion, while a million Scots will be in receipt of disability benefits.The social security bill is rising at four times the rate of the rest of the budget, and to meet the costs of it, one million workers will soon be paying the higher rate of tax.

John Swinney, below, can't see the arithmetic just doesn't add up. He doesn't understand the damage excessive taxes do to the wider economy, because he actively approves of them. He and Finance Secretary Shona Robison are fond of parroting "those with the broadest shoulders" are "asked" to pay more. But it's nonsense.