Even Leaner Times To Come For Poor Scots

First published in the Morning Star: Unions and community groups are gearing up for twin demonstrations in Edinburgh and Glasgow on October 29 against another savage round of council cuts.

Glasgow faces cuts of £103 million and 3,000 jobs over two years. This follows cuts of £250m and 4,000 jobs lost since 2010, hitting learning disability and mental health services, home care, supported education for children, community work, cleaning, library services and voluntary organisations.

Local authorities on the brink

Published in Morning Star 18/3/14:
I once received a letter which said: "Like you, we believe local services are more important than frozen poultry."

I was mildly puzzled because I couldn't recall ever having made such a profound analysis.

It turns out it was a reply to something a colleague had sent out contrasting the local paper's silence about 1,500 council job cuts with its campaign against 547 job losses at a chicken factory.

Myths rally to attack national bargaining

Attacks on national bargaining are not new. Neither are myth-peddling and selective statistics to whip up hysteria against public service workers. But to see both so transparently together in a self-contradicting liberal think tank paper would be entertaining if it were not so dangerously dressed up as academic analysis.

The Telegraph jumps on the bandwagon with a piece by Julian Astle of the CentreForum think tank extolling the work of Professor Alison Wolf who manages to conclude that “Britain needs to rid itself of rigid centralised wage bargaining. These systems are economically harmful, undermine quality in the public services, and perpetuate disadvantage.”

Tourist tax would help combat the looming cuts

It is hard to comprehend just how savage the cuts are. Such is the scale, that they are destroying the very fabric of services, not just for the next few years but forever.

The cuts are ideologically, not financially driven. The debt was much higher in the 1940s but we could still build our treasured NHS. The few economists who actually predicted the crash say that cuts of this speed and size will make things worse.

'Don't handcuff our councils' says UNISON as cuts hit Scotland

UNISON Scotland says Government moves to dictate how council budgets are spent is effectively ‘handcuffing’ local authorities and sounds the death knell for democracy. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2011/janfeb/1002.htm 

Trade unionists, community groups and members of the public were lobbying council meetings across Scotland today to urge their elected members to put the needs of their communities first when setting their budgets.

Deficit fibbers

“He knows the deficit hasn't been caused by "waste", but seeing as that starting point is a lie, the stories they tell might as well be made up completely”. Mark Steel writes a knockabout on the deficit and Grant Shapps in the Independent…….

Poll shows Labour 8% ahead but still not winning on economy - Why?

Labour has opened up an eight-point lead over the Conservatives, according to a ComRes survey for The Independent. The figures would give Labour an overall majority of 102 if repeated at the next election. However, Labour has not yet won the key battle on the economy. Why http://www.comres.co.uk/page1902124918.aspx

Deficit deniers? What about cuts deniers?

Nick Clegg was yesterday trying to rubbish the Institute of Fiscal Studies' evidence that, with the exception of the richest 2% of the population, the least well-off would be hit the hardest, and families with children would lose out the most due to ConDem cuts.

Does Green realise he's arguing against privatisation?

UNISONActive readers will not have missed the irony of Sir Phillip Green advising the government how to save money while quite legally depriving it of the very millions in taxes that could avoid cuts in the first place.

Selling Edinburgh off will come at great cost to us all

In an otherwise enlightening article on council funding and privatisation (Counting the cost of public sector cuts, News, July 27), Rory Reynolds spoils it when he says "the status quo is unsustainable". http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion/Letters-Selling-Edinburgh-off-will.6446318.jp

Even Chambers of Commerce say cuts will harm recovery‏

It is clear that businesses are anticipating the planned reductions in public spending at a Scottish and UK level to have a dampening effect on the recovery", says the Scottish Chambers of Commerce in releasing their second quarter Business Survey results today.

NHS loses 4000 jobs as bankers get bonus for making a loss!

Tom Waterson

The NHS in Scotland is facing 4,000 job cuts as the SNP government plans a £270million cut in spending following a tight budget settlement earlier this year. And even further cuts are expected after the Westminster ConDem ‘emergency budget’ on 22 June with knock-on effects in Scotland over the next few years.

The Scottish Government has promised there will be no compulsory redundancies and have agreed a partnership group with the unions to scrutinise workforce plans, but that still leaves major concerns about and jobs and services.

Our City's Not For Sale

May Day 2010 Edinburgh, being the speaker after the comedian! Many years ago I was a semi-pro magician, believe it or not, and one of the key showbiz maxims was ‘never follow a comedian’. All those years and I’ve never learned. Mind you, there’s a lot of not-learning around as we run up to this election.