A LEADING Scots writer has painted a devastating portrait of contemporary England comparing it detrimentally to Scotland as a place where “the poor are crushed more easily”, “racism is more easily enabled” and where the elderly live in “dire slum care facilities”.

AL Kennedy gave her excoriating depiction of life south of the Border as she said the country of her birth could be an example to the rest of the UK in pursuing an alternative economic agenda and building a more caring society.

Her remarks came after Finance Secretary Derek Mackay announced a radical shake-up of income tax for people in Scotland in his draft Budget on Thursday.

READ MORE: Scottish Greens tell Derek Mackay their condition for Budget support

The plans, which will raise an extra £164 million to help fund public services, will see lower earners pay less income tax than in the rest of the UK, while those on higher incomes will pay more.

Kennedy spoke out to support the principle of “more progressive taxation” after it was attacked by the Scottish Conservatives.

“England has swallowed the agenda of tax cuts and austerity and the comfort of the one per cent much more wholeheartedly,” she told The National.

“The poor are crushed more easily and blamed more loudly, racism is more easily enabled and the ‘comfortable’ classes pay more for everything – schooling, healthcare, transport, utilities, you name it. And, of course, the cliff-edge gets nearer for everyone.

“People who expected to be safe in old age fret their lives away being stressed and misled by patchy privatised home care, or are warehoused in dire slum elderly care facilities.

“Homelessness explodes. It’s something being enforced UK-wide, but with opposition so long in disarray and alternative media being slower off the mark, England and Wales are being pushed harder.

“It has been heartbreaking to see two nations being ground up into hamburger meat to feed a machine that simply wants to stay in power and that is happy to short sell entire economies for profit.”

She added: “The Scottish economy and social contract could act as an example to the UK as a whole – it’s already being attacked for just those reasons. If austerity is a cruel confidence trick perpetrated by ideologues and wealth-addicts, Scotland stepping back from the con shows Wales and England another path and shames the looters at work now.”

Kennedy was born in Dundee but now lives in England. She has published eight novels including Day, set in the years after the Second World War, which won the prestigious Costa Prize in 2008.

A Scottish Government spokesman said the Budget would allow Scotland to be the fairest taxed part of the UK.

He said: “Our Draft Budget will create a stronger economy and a fairer society, with increased funding for the NHS and protection for low and middle income earners.

“We are investing in our public services and supporting business to develop and thrive and this Budget mitigates against the UK Government’s cuts to our block grant.”

He added: “Our new, fairer, income tax policy will protect the 70 per cent of taxpayers who earn less than £33,000 a year and ensure they pay less tax next year for any given income whilst asking those earning more than £33,000 to pay a proportionate amount more to support our public services.”