Ludo Thierry
Noticed this story about the W, Dunbartonshire Council (SNP/Ind coalition) managing to bring about an extended Free School Meals policy which is introducing these to ALL Primary School pupils. The SNP/Ind administration have committed hard cash funding of £1M to get this going.
I happened upon this GOOD NEWS story on the beeb Education page. It was originally posted on the Glasgow and West Scotland page but must have been pulled after less than a day. Hmmm – wonder why that might have been done….?
The thought struck me that the extraordinary Scottish political radical, (co-founder of both the Scottish Labour Party and the SNP), literary giant and traveller/explorer par excellence, and gaucho, Don Roberto (R.B. Cunninghame Graham) was elected IN 1886 (!!) on a manifesto including Free School Meals and Home Rule for Scotland.
Don Roberto spent much of his early years at Ardoch so would be particularly pleased to see an SNP/YES council administration achieve Free School Meals in this part of Scotland. (With all the benefits of Westminster’s iron hand of control this unarguably sensible policy has been delayed by, ONLY, some 134 years).
I think we can safely add ‘social visionary’ to Don Roberto’s impressive list of accomplishments. Let’s get Indy really quick now so Don Roberto can get his Free School Meals vision fully implemented without further britnat delay.
Council tax will rise by 4.84% in West Dunbartonshire, but the authority said it would help fund a widened free school meal scheme.
Nearly one million pounds will be used to make school dinners free for all primary age children.
The free meals will be phased in over a two-year period.
Other budget plans include £8m for road and pavement improvements, £1.85m to boost employment and £250,000 to fund more learning assistants.
It said the investment in school meals would “save local families hundreds of pounds a year”.
Since January 2015, free school meals have been offered to children up to primary three in all state schools in the country as part of (SNP) Scottish government policy.
Ian Dickson, convener of corporate services said: “For the second year, we have adopted a no cuts budget in West Dunbartonshire, investing in key areas and supporting our residents.”
“Our residents told us through the budget survey that they wanted education to be prioritised,” he added.
“We have responded to that with a commitment to provide free school meals in all of our primary schools, an increase in funding for extra learning assistants, and a pledge to continue to invest in our schools”.
The council, which serves 89,000 residents, announced rent will increase by 1.9%.
It follows a consultation with tenants and will be the third year in a row rent rise is below inflation.
A decision to increase rents at gypsy traveller sites by (below inflation)1.9% was also approved.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Fascinating!
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The ‘disaggregation’ of Strathclyde Region in the local government reorganisation by the Major Government in the early 1990s was straightforwardly party political to try to ensure that the Tories had control of some local authorities in Scotland. It was also an exercise in greed, because the regressive nature of the Council Tax results in affluent areas paying LESS Council Tax than less affluent areas.
What Strathclyde Regional Council was able to do was to make rates (remember the Tories abolished these, too) more equitable for the half of Scotland’s population, who lived in Strathclyde and to redistribute wealth within the Region. This raised the standards of public services across the whole area and was particularly beneficial to sparsely populated areas, such as Argyll (which, historically, had returned Tory MPs). It also meant that the affluent areas on the borders of the City of Glasgow, such as Bearsden and Milngavie, Lenzie, Eastwood, Newton Mearns, contributed to the city, which was actually generating the wealth to pay the substantial wages and dividends they were taking home to these areas beyond the boundary.
In the major academic study of the Scottish Regions, Keating and Midwinter, praised the strategic vision of the Council, its equitable redistributive actions and of the effective way it had used its resources. It was particularly effective in relieving rural poverty. Despite this, since Strathclyde consistently elected Labour controlled councils, it demonstrated that, contrary to Mrs Thatcher’s dictum that “there is no alternative” (to her neoliberal vision), labour could provide a viable alternative redistributive paradigm which attracted a lot of people. It was also politically powerful – look at how it resisted the privatisation of water.
So, Strathclyde was broken up and the boundaries of the new councils gerrymandered to maximise the Tory vote. The historic County of Renfrew was split into three, with Inverclyde (around Greenock) being the least affluent, Renfrewshire (around Paisley) a bit more affluent, leaving East Renfrewshire a very affluent enclave, which despite the gerrymandering, had to include Barrhead.The Historic County of Dunbarton, which had always existed in two physically separate pieces was split into East and West Dunbartonshire, with West Dunbartonshire given the economically depressed towns of Dumbarton, Clydebank and the Vale of Leven, leaving the more affluent areas around Bishopbriggs and Lenzie to East Dunbartonshire.
Despite the gerrymandering, the Tories did NOT win East Renfrewshire – Labour did!. And East Dunbartonshire has never had a Tory administration, although they have shared in loose coalitions (to exclude the SNP).
So, given the relatively low tax base, for West Dunbartonshire to be providing free meals for all primary school pupils is a powerful statement of priorities and of equity. ludo is to be praised for highlighting this signal achievement by the Council.
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