So this happened:

The truth

We all know Tories love a good soundbite, and you will hear "highest taxed part of the UK" coming out of Tory mouths about a million times over the next 12 months. But as always, the truth is  more complicated.

The Scottish Government has introduced two new tax bands as well as changing the rates and the thresholds at which taxes start to apply. The majority of people have actually been given a tax cut. You can read the full details here.

These are the actual rates. The old ones are on the left, and the new ones (which came into force on the 6th April 2018) on the right:

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has put this into graph form:

Notice that the difference between the new Scottish tax rates and the Rest of the UK ones is actually quite small. But to listen to the Tories you would think that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are about to ride through your house!

The IFS has also done an impact assessment based on the population's income:

75% of Scots now pay less or see no change under the new tax rules.

Only 25% are being asked to pay a little bit more.

How much more? The estimable Colin Dunn has produced a nice infographic for that:

And remember, this is just on income tax. When you factor in Council Tax, the picture changes dramatically:

The average Band D (which is most houses) council tax rate in England is 39% higher than in Scotland.

Source: UK Gov

So "highest taxed part of the UK" is complete rubbish. The vast majority of Scots pay less and get more from the Scottish Government than people living in England.

Tories hate tax rises, especially ones targeting the rich. So they'll lie, and lie, and lie, and lie to get the public to believe that millionaires are downtrodden people who need to pay less tax than the poor because otherwise they might not be able to afford their skiing holidays.

So what do we do about it?

We want to produce 200,000 postcards featuring Colin's info-graphic showing that the Tories are talking complete mince on Scottish taxes. The reverse of the card will also feature the findings of a recent Ferret investigation which proves that the Tories are the biggest liars in the Scottish political firmament.

We'll get the cards printed, and then distribute them via the National Yes Registry to Yes groups all over Scotland. This crowdfunder is for the printing only. We'll ask the Yes groups to cover the cost of postage or courier delivery. The printing and packaging is about £1,450, and adding Indiegogo's and the payment gateways's fees brings us to £1,600. If we go over target, we'll get extra cards printed. If we don't reach target, we'll print and distribute as many as we possibly can.

That's it. Let's get the message out!