---

Scotland and the Union

No answer. Not only is this hour-and-a-half debate a microcosm of the election campaign, but so is this one exchange. There are no answers on fiscal or monetary policy. I asked the simplest question about council tax policy. I did not ask for the entire projection of all revenues across Scotland, or what the impact on services would be. I asked the simplest question: how much will a two-income couple in a band D household have to earn before they pay more in local income tax than they do in council tax? The hon. Gentleman completely failed to answer the question. I shall give him an answer: about £34,000. If he disputes that or thinks that my sums are wrong, and that a couple living together and each earning £17,000 will pay less under his policy, let him tell us. He cannot do it. My hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire, North (Jim Sheridan), whom I belatedly congratulate on securing the debate, set out detailed points about defence procurement. When 20,000 Scottish jobs rely on the defence industry in Scotland, the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) did not even have the courtesy to give an approximation of the number of those jobs that would be retained in an independent Scotland. It is an insult to the people who work in those defence-related jobs and to the people of Govan, whose local industry is so dependent—