Reform says it would cut green policies to fund £2bn income tax cut in Scotland
Reform UK would slash what it calls “highly dubious” environmental protection measures to help fund a £2bn cut to income tax in Scotland if it won May’s Holyrood elections, the party has said,Malcolm Offord, the multimillionaire financier who was announced as leader of Reform UK in Scotland 10 days ago, used his first major speech to announce plans to realign the country’s tax system – where higher earners currently pay significantly more – with the rest of the UK and institute a 1p-in-the-pound cut across the board,Despite repeated polling showing Reform UK neck and neck with Scottish Labour for second place behind the Scottish National party, Offord claimed May’s election was a “two-horse race” between his party and the nationalists,He urged “moderate unionists no longer represented by the Tories” and “rational nationalists no longer represented by the SNP” to find “common ground” in their support for Reform, but dismissed any prospect of a second referendum on independence in the medium term,“I say no to the distraction of another referendum, for at least another 10 years, without ruling one out in the future,” he said.
Recent polling for the Sunday Times suggests the majority of SNP and Labour voters would vote across their constitutional preference in order to defeat Reform,Speaking at a country club near Glasgow, Offord said that a total of 3p in the pound would be cut from income taxes over the first five years of a Reform government,The party believes the realignment would cost £1,2bn, with £850m more for each 1p cut,Offord said: “The immediate cost on day one of £2bn and that will be paid for by reallocation of the currently £9bn that we spend on highly dubious environmental protections, economic development and 132 unaccountable quangos,” he said.
Pressed on the detail of the proposed cuts, Offord said the party had not conducted a “line by line” analysis yet, adding: “All we can be very clear about is that there’s been a huge amount of overlap, duplication and waste.”Stephen Boyd, the director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland, described the proposals as “profoundly unserious, almost comically so”, saying he could not identify how Reform UK could come close to the savings it claimed it could make and underlined the “significant impact on public sector jobs and pay going forward” should the proposals come to pass.Offord claimed to view immigration policy “through the lens of the Christian faith”.Having made reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan, however, he went on to say: “Right now, especially in this cost of living scenario, we need to prioritise our own people over strangers.Instead, from Inverness to Falkirk, local people are witnessing priority of services, opportunity and safety being given to strangers, and that is not fair.
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Ignore the snobbery and get into blended whisky
We have Robert Burns to thank for perhaps the greatest poem about any dish ever – a poem so good that it inspires an entire nation to dedicate an evening of each year to eating haggis, even though most people find it kind of gross.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.No? If the “Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race” were that delicious, we’d all be eating it all the time, surely? And yet Burns’ Address to a Haggis is enticing enough to dispel any such doubts just once a year
Helen Goh’s recipe for Breton butter cake with marmalade | The sweet spot
A Breton butter cake is a proud product of Brittany’s butter-rich baking tradition: dense, golden and unapologetically indulgent. True to its origins, my version uses salted butter, with an added pinch of flaky salt to sharpen the flavour. It also takes a small detour from tradition: a slick of marmalade brings a fragrant bitterness, while a handful of ground almonds softens the overall richness and lends a tender crumb. The result is still buttery and luxurious, but with a brighter, more aromatic edge.Brief stints in the freezer help firm up the dough between layers, making it easier to spread the marmalade without disturbing the base
Gordon Ramsay says tax changes will make restaurants ‘lambs to the slaughter’
The celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has accused the government of cooking up a kitchen nightmare at restaurants across the country with tax changes that he says will make hospitality businesses “lambs to the slaughter”.Ramsay, whose company operates 34 restaurants in the UK including Bread Street Kitchen, Pétrus and Lucky Cat, said the industry was “facing a bloodbath”. He said restaurants were closing every day as a result of rising business rates, which came on top of higher energy, staffing and ingredient costs and little growth in consumer spending.“I’ve never seen it so bad,” Ramsay told the Standardnews site. “When I look ahead to April, when the budget measures come in, I think those of us in hospitality are lambs to the slaughter
No more sad sandwiches and soggy salads: here’s how to make a proper packed lunch
Even if you have no truck with Blue Monday, Quitter’s Day or any of the other new-year wheezes concocted by enterprising marketeers, the last weeks of January can feel like a bit of a confused slog. Seasonal colds and lurgies abound. The weather is generally at its rain-lashed and blackly overcast worst. Well-intentioned attempts at self-improvement or abstemiousness are starting to creak in the face of a desire for whatever scraps of midwinter comfort we can find.Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to food and, more specifically, the daily puzzle of how to have something nourishing as a working lunch
Rum is booming but only Jamaican classics have the true funk
After Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica last October, rum lovers anxiously awaited news from the island’s six distilleries. Hampden Estate, in the parish of Trelawney to the north, was right in the hurricane’s path, and the furious winds deprived its historic buildings of their roofs and the palm trees of their fronds. Then came more alarming rumours: the dunder pits had overflowed.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pasta e fagioli with coconut, spring onion, chilli and lemon | A kitchen in Rome
Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, under the banner of story, art and folklore, the Roman publishing house Newton Compton published a series of 27 books about regional Italian cooking. Some, such as Jeanne Carola Francesconi’s epic 1965 La Cucina Napoletana, were reprints of established books, while others were specially commissioned for the series. There is considerable variation; some of the 20 regions occupy 650 densely filled pages, sometimes spread over two volumes, while other regions have 236 pages with larger fonts, with everything in between. All of which is great, although I can’t help feeling affectionate towards the regions with 14-point font.In the face of the vast variation of regional culinary habits, knowledge and rituals, I also feel affectionate towards the common traditions; those that are specific to a place, but at the same time that cross local and national borders, as well as for the stories of the ingredients
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