Put this foolish tourist tax to bed

SOME Liberal and SNP councillors are wakening up to the idea of having a tourism tax – or a bed tax, as it should be more properly known – as a way to fund Edinburgh's local promotions.

I doubt that putting an extra £6 on the Balmoral's rack rate of £305 a night is going to deter anyone, but we would be foolish to pretend that this is what the bed tax would mean.

Firstly, the Balmoral is not typical of the hotel market in Edinburgh; it's an exclusive hotel with the costs of staying there often met by corporate expenses or by people of high personal wealth. Justifying a bed tax because those that sleep at the Balmoral can afford it is rather like justifying a rise in car tax because the owners of Rolls-Royces or Bentleys won't mind.

Instead, we should be looking at what it will do to the budget market, or economy class – the hotel equivalent of owners of the Ford Mondeo or Nissan Micra. This part of the market is price-sensitive so we could expect Edinburgh to be the loser. 'Come to Edinburgh, but stay in Glasgow' might as well be the new slogan!

Then there is the naivety to believe that the tax will stay at the two per cent a room per night being touted. Of course it won't. It will go up. And up. And up. Within a couple of years the tax could easily reach five per cent or more, easily adding £30 to an average bill over a week.

The reason consideration is being given to the bed tax idea is simple – Edinburgh council has a financial crisis and it wants to find new ways of paying for its operations rather than taking the harder decision to review what it actually does and if it could be doing some things more efficiently.

It is true that some other countries use a bed tax to raise revenues – but various North American states or provinces don't have VAT or business rates.

Of course if the money that was raised in business taxes in Edinburgh actually reached the council there wouldn't be a problem at all – but it doesn't. While I personally believe our politicians should be phasing out Scotland's business rates – so that our economy enjoys a greater competitive edge against the rest of the UK – it is nothing short of criminal that the business rates collected in Edinburgh don't stay in Edinburgh.

Business rates are not a local tax – they are a national tax set annually in the Scottish Parliament. They may be collected locally but the money is held centrally and disbursed by the Scottish Government as it sees fit. The result (and the SNP has behaved no differently to Labour and the Liberal Democrats) is that Edinburgh businesses pay over £80 million more in business rates than the city gets back.

There really is no need for a bed tax, there are enough taxes out there already – all we need to do is make sure that Edinburgh benefits from the taxes it raises.

Statuesque
SO a memorial to Dr Elsie Inglis, suffragette and most famously saviour of thousands of allied soldiers during the Great War through her Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, is to be unveiled in France. What a pity more isn't being done in Edinburgh to celebrate the life and sacrifice of this most courageous of women.

Soon a statue of economist and philosopher Adam Smith will be unveiled in the Royal Mile – paid for, fittingly, by private subscription. What a shame that plans to erect a statue to Elsie Inglis appear so far to have come to nought.

There are too few statues of women and a tribute to Elsie would begin to redress that imbalance.

A memorial in Abbaye de Royaumont – where her hospital was – makes sense, but a statue of her and her nurses in the Royal Mile – which could perhaps be funded by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Nursing, the BMA and Unison – is long overdue.

Cold reception
I LIKE Iceland – it has an alluring natural landscape and the hot pools and short nights make it a must-see kind of place. Unless you are a polar bear, that is.

Some poor bear managed to arrive just the other day on an ice flow but was shot dead rather than tranquillised. The last polar bear sighted in Iceland was 16 years ago – it too was killed.

The negative media coverage that will now be reverberating around the world reporting the needless death of this endangered species will do the country no favours. I recommend the Tourism Minister buys a supply of tranquilliser guns and gives them to the police.

Scots fans off to the World Cup qualifying match later this year should take care not to wear any polar bear outfits – or they might not see Scotland again.