Professor John Robertson OBA
On Friday 24th March 2024, Aberlour hosted an event for Debt Awareness Week – ‘Giving with One Hand, Taking Away with the Other’ – to highlight the impact of public debt on low income families and the role it plays in trapping families in poverty.
We finished the day with a discussion featuring our expert panel, which included Dr Jim McCormick (CEO, The Robertson Trust), Emma Jackson (National Director Scotland, Christians Against Poverty (CAP), Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP (Scottish Labour spokesperson for (Social Justice and Social Security), alongside SallyAnn Kelly and Professor Treanor.
https://www.aberlour.org.uk/news-item/giving-with-one-hand-taking-away-with-the-other
Today, the Aberlour Trust Head, Sally Ann Kelly (above left) is in the Herald with ‘Swinney warned child poverty inaction is ‘deliberate act of state harm.’ She has aimed the same accusation at the SNP before.
Has she forgotten the above event with Duncan-Glancy in attendance?
That was before Duncan-Glancy’s party in government was to launch its cruel austerity programme but surely, today, she might have wanted to aim her fire more strongly at the UK Labour Government and remind Duncan-Glancy of her sickening hypocrisy, like this;
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The usual Labour Party duplicity from a paid-up member of Starmer’s gang .
Take the Public for mugs ! Say what they want to hear but act against their interests.
Their new slogan should be ” Brass Necks R’ Us !”
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SICKENING LABOUR
worse than putin
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With all due respect to this, and many other Independence supporting websites, the brainwashing by the M.SM, led by their cheerleader, the B.B.C, will continue unabated. They, and practically they alone, although aided by their useful glove puppets, quisling M.S.Ps/councillors/trade union bosses, are responsible for the fact that we are not an Independent nation. Of course, in the final judgement, it’s the people of Scotland who should have taken the opportunity when it was presented to them, but faced with such propaganda, I can understand why so many felt unable to take that step. Hopefully, next time will be different.
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I am a proud long-time member and activist of the Greater Pollok and Cardonald branch of the SNP who gave the constituency the best and hardest working MP it ever had. Haste ye back, Big Chris.👍🏴
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SHE IS WELL BOUGHT AND PAID FORMONEY DOES TALK EH
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I feel sure that Ms Kelly and Ms Duncan-Glancy will be admirers of the British Labour Party’s sage in North Britain, former PM Gordon Brown.
It seems that Mr Brown knows more about the origins of child poverty across the UK and who has the power and responsibility to fix it. From Birmingham Live on March 12, 2025 this headline: ‘Former PM Gordon Brown in Birmingham backs child poverty urgent action call’.
Mr Brown’s input at the Birmingham event is quoted: “We’ve now got to have a comprehensive programme to deal with the results of what have been 15 years or so of austerity. The 104,000 or so children in Birmingham in poverty, and the 4.3 million children in the country, they are ‘austerity children’ because they’re the product of that freezing of benefits, the cutting of child benefit, the introduction of the two child rule and everything else. So that is what the Child Poverty Review must address.’ (My emphasis)
So what is the British Labour Party government inn Westminster doing about poverty so far?– see e.g. https://www.jrf.org.uk/news/cuts-to-push-250000-into-poverty-as-living-standards-for-the-poorest-under-continuing-assault
Responding to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement and the publication of the government’s impact assessment for their planned cuts to disability benefits, Paul Kissack, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said:
“The Chancellor said today that she would not do anything to put household finances in danger, yet the government’s own assessment shows that their cuts to health related benefits risk pushing 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children. This will harm people, deepening the hardship they already face.’
In my dreams, The Herald might put these points to Ms Kelly next time it considers giving her a platform for what candidly, is a completely ridiculous, misdirected charge of ‘state harm’. It seems to me that Gordon Brown and the JRF (above) were making perfectly clear which ‘state’ causes harm!
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HE /SHE DOES NOT RECEIVE A BURSARY TO OPENLY LIE about their Lies
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“Has she forgotten the above event with Duncan-Glancy in attendance”?
Whose presence , I think, is still felt as far as this ‘charity’ is concerned.
Listen the accusations they make in the Herald’s headline on the supposed:
“Failure to tackle poverty is an act of state harm to children”
It is the UK State that is failing to tackle child poverty and so harming children in poverty, indeed it is Labour, as the new UK government , who are the ones who are exacerbating this real problem within their UK , especially with all of their bad and cruel decisions they have made as a UK government.
This charity seems to be contradicting what other renowned organisations have said in relation to what the Scottish government are doing, as in have done, to try and tackle child poverty compared to Pam Duncan-Glancy’s Labour party as the new UK government.
Pam’s Labour party, as the new UK government, have decided to prioritise other things such as increasing Defence spending , not introducing a wealth tax on the rich, penalising the vulnerable via the Benefits system, not paying compensation to WASPI women, not paying a Universal WFP to Pensioners, a Labour Chancellor saying she has listened to the ‘concerns’ of the billionaire non-doms, the Labour leader deciding to not revive the Levinson Inquiry, reducing foreign aid to those in need in other vulnerable countries and in fact I am bloody amazed that any charity would choose to only target the Scottish government while letting the Labour UK one get off with so many decisions that obviously target the poor more than the rich !
(BTW the above list of bad decisions by the UK Labour government is not an exhaustive list…..they have done other bad things too , and they have also failed to uphold all of the pledges that they made to the UK public in their GE Campaign, as in those same issues that they, as the once official opposition, used to state that the former Tory UK government had failed to do e.g. bring down energy prices, failed to stop widespread water pollution in England etc etc)
Plus where are the promised thousands of jobs and investment for Scotland with GB Energy ?
(Oh wait that will be apparently not be now but it will be much much much later which is apparently #NoGoodToScotland, same Scotland that was promised jobs would be saved and hundreds of millions invested in Grangemouth which turned out to be a big fat LIE).
Also can I say, for what seems like the millionth time:
‘Scotland is not an independent country that has all of the powers, total control and all of the money’ to be able to do all of those things that organisations like this charity would want it to do.
Yet our Scottish government are once again spoken about #Targeted , as if they did have all of the powers, total control and all of the money to do all of the things that organisations like this charity wants it to do. (and also what the newspapers say the Scottish government is failing to do, yet they too, as newspapers, know only too well all of the limitations that a devolved government has to work under).
However The Herald is not the only front page targeting the SNP.
The quaintly name newspaper ‘The Scotsman’ also has stories on their front page that are #SNPBAD.
“Defence failures may put scots at risk, says MP” – Labour MP that is Graeme Downie.
Of course Defence is a RESERVED power but let’s not spoil this fabricated non story aka yet another contrived #SNPBAD from a Labour MP as in someone who is , checks bloody notes, in a opposition party !
The Daily Record (client media for the Labour party)
“£10 Billion Tenement time bomb alert” with picture of, checks bloody notes again, Labour MSP Paul Sweeney, so this is to do with ‘old homes crumble’ but these were surely “old homes” when Labour were formerly in power at Holyrood and they did nowt , and what about Labour councils , so it is just another concoction that equates to yet another #SNPBAD story concocted from a member of the opposition party as in Labour yet again ?
BTW ‘The Herald’ also has another #SNPBAD story on their front page
“Teachers are being driven out of schools by the SNP” but wait as apparently this was sourced via …….bloody Labour again , as someone from Labour said this was due to SNP “incompetence” so another #Labour/Newspaper #SNPBAD story.
(I see a pattern forming here- Labour party-Newspapers-#SNPBAD-2026 Scottish Elections-SNP ahead of Labour in Polls- so Labour and their client media have to buck that trend and try to reverse it for Labour’s benefit-#CreateSNPBADHeadlines).
The Press & Journal front page headline
“Patients & Medic tell the P & J of a ‘system in crisis’ (yep another #SNPBAD story)
This is never ending.
So as Labour UK choose to have more privatisation involvement in the , checks bloody notes yet again, NHS and Welsh Labour’s NHS performs worse than the Scottish NHS then the media in Scotland chooses to always focus upon and target only the Scottish government while ignoring what is happening elsewhere. Got it.
Is it any wonder Labour got 37 MP’s elected last year as apparently there is never any good news connected to the SNP as a party , or as the current Scottish government. I mean , apart from The National occasionally noting positive initiatives connected to the SNP , all other newspapers source their SNP #BAD stories from what is clearly hostile opposition parties , also some hostile Trade Unions and apparently now some hostile charity organisations.
How Scotland has not imploded is amazing with so much #SNPBADNEWS.
Vote SNP in 2026 to show all hostile forces that we do not believe or accept their versions of (their) reality, where they always target the SNP as the Scottish government but seem to be ignoring the harm being done by the former Tory UK government and also now via the current Labour UK government. The reason for this is far too obvious of course.
Welcome to Scotland where everything is politicised.
(BTW this will all stop if the SNP were no longer the Scottish government, as then we would see a distinct shift in the tone and the style of media reporting on politics within Scotland. )
Liz S
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O/T
Why do we not hear about this on BBC Scotland if it was said by any SNP Minister they would be all over it.
Lucy Powell, Labour Leader of the House of Commons, when asked about the rape gang scandal responded with “You want to blow that little trumpet” and “Let’s get that dog whistle out”.
This is from the woman who tells someone not to talk over her but ready enough to do it to the SNP
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I’m not so sure the charity head is taking flak for the Herald’s editorial framing more than anything else, read the article and judge for yourself https://archive.ph/SlcKo – The 1st paragraph distorts the correctly quoted headline of ” Child poverty inaction is ‘deliberate act of state harm’ ” to “Politicians are committing a ‘deliberate act of harm’ against children” in the first paragraph, and by the 5th paragraph the “she also said” implies all before was actually stated.
By the 6th the “state” has become sequenced by the Herald’s self promotion in “Aberlour is one of 23 charities backing The Herald’s campaign which urges Mr Swinney to increase the Scottish Child Payment to £40 per week, while also urging Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child limit”
It’s all very much from the same propaganda school which spawned such as James Cook and his protege Ciaran Jenkins, it’s all about implying conclusions as “the News where you are”…..
I’ve little problem with what she actually said once you isolate them from inference, it’s the Herald I’d be criticising for not fairly and squarely ripping successive UK governments a new ” Farage ” for actively promoting a return to pre WW2 conditions for the last 45 years with no battle weary soldiers prepared to fight for the promised ‘land fit for heroes’ to encumber the regression…
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Over the last week or so, and continuing this week, the Herald has moved into full anti-SNP/SG campaigning mode. Child poverty, teacher numbers, housing, drug addition you name it the Herald has covered it sometimes in single articles such as teacher numbers. Yesterday in an article that dealt only in percentages but never mentioned any actual numbers of teachers. Sometimes they run the ‘campaign’ over several days eg child poverty.
The common theme in all of this is that the SG is not doing enough and what it is doing isn’t working.
It seems as far as the Herald is concerned the 2026 election campaign has started.
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BBC Scotland never stopped… Pretty soon the entire band will be back together…
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Noticed last night a Ytube ad by the ‘UK government’ telling us how they are doing a great service to the ‘workers’ by giving em them a pay ris eand a living wage or something like that..their election campaign has already started. Adverts don’t come cheap either!
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Yet more justification for ‘black holes’…
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Westminster is responsible for austerity. Brexit. Increased Defence (attack) budget. Wasting £Billions on Hickley Point, HS2, Trident, redundant weaponry. £13Billion a year decommissioning nuclear. Scotland in surplus in fuel and energy pays more. The list is endless.
The Scottish Gov has to mitigate the cuts of Westminster poor, bad policies.
Independence is the answer. The charities should admit it.
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MSM Monitor tweet today
“BBC Breakfast had an item on today’s ‘Programme for Government’ from John Swinney that included reaction from the opposition. Guess which leader was framed as the main opposition leader? Yep, Anas Sarwar. The list MSP who leads the 3rd largest group”.
That’s right Sarwar is not the ‘official opposition leader’ and he is also not an elected constituency MSP.
Indeed how many people , not politically engaged in Scotland , or even those elsewhere in the UK who are not clued up on Scottish politics, are aware that it is the Tories at Holyrood who are the ‘official opposition’ there ?
The BBC knows, so why do they have an item on their main BBC Breakfast programme where the FM speaks first and then immediately after they have Anas Sarwar in their BBC news item on John Swinney’s ‘Programme for Government’ for the Scottish elections in 2026.
Surely Russell Findlay should be the one initially responding after John Swinney .
Would they do that with a WM election ?
Remember prior to the 2024 GE it was the Tories in power at WM and Labour were the official opposition then it was the SNP who were the third party, so would the BBC main English Breakfast news programme have spoken to Sunak and then immediately after speak to Stephen Flynn from the SNP for his response instead of Keir Starmer in the 2024 GE campaign?
Nope.
We all know why they have done this it’s because:
They, the BBC, are framing it as being between Labour and the SNP in Scotland in 2026 , as the media know that the Tories have no chance , mind you with Labour now the UK government and being so do bad as a government , then I would say that Labour here also have no chance in 2026.
However the BBC are on Anas Sarwar’s side and he is their latest BritNat hope to try and unseat the SNP as the Scottish government.
One wonders when the election campaign starts in Wales what the running order will be there with the BBC’ , will they skip the official opposition leader’s response from the Tory party after they speak to the Welsh Labour FM and go straight to the leader of Plaid Cymru.
As if.
Vote SNP in 2026 as a majority as in doing so you will thwart the BBC’s hopes in them trying to install Sarwar and his Labour party as the next Scottish government at Holyrood in 2026.
Liz S
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*being so do bad
Me no write normal , me write like Yoda or rather me write nonsense in adding words into a sentence that should no be there Ha Ha
being so bad as a government, oh that makes (more) sense ….kind of….Ha Ha.
Liz S
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Feel the farce look….
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Ha Ha
It’s an British Empire strikes back moment…Ha Ha
(They’re getting me back for all of me attacks upon them , with me being a part of the Rebel Force).
Liz S
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O/T The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has a press release (issued May 6) which makes a positive reference to NHS Scotland – yes really!
The statement has this title: ‘An alarming threat to patient safety’ – over a million older patients endured 12-hour waits in England’s A&Es last year.’
It goes on: ‘Figures obtained by RCEM via Freedom of Information Act requests, reveal in England’s major EDs last year, a staggering 1,148,666 people aged 60 and over waited more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged. That’s over 3.5 times more people when compared to 2019, when the figure stood at 305,619.’
And: ‘Against the backdrop of these long waits, RCEM’s research calls on Emergency Department clinicians to recognise and address the distinct healthcare needs and conditions of older adults who are seeking Urgent and Emergency Care. It also recommends ‘front door frailty screening’ should be in place in every A&E to improve the care they need – something which is being introduced in Scotland.’
According to Health and Care Scotland (March 7), there are currently five frailty units in place in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Lanarkshire, Tayside, Glasgow and Dumfries and Galloway. The aim is to have one at every emergency department later this year.
(Source: https://healthandcare.scot/stories/4087/nhs-scotland-reform-prevention-frailty-units )
You may recall the Scottish Sun front page from January 28, 2025 (amplified on the BBC News website as I recall). Above an article written by its Political Editor, it had this headline: ‘If your nan’s not down, you’re not coming in’ and ‘FM’s A&E ‘grannie bouncers’.
From the full text in the online version: ‘John Swinney was tonight accused of deploying “granny bouncers” at the door of every A&E to turn away OAPs deemed not sick enough to come in. Rivals attacked the First Minister after he announced “frailty teams” will intercept older people arriving at casualty who could be treated elsewhere.’
We learn from the Scottish Sun: ‘… he (the FM) was attacked for his approach to elderly patients, with Scottish Labour raising concerns it could put patients off coming to hospital when they are at risk.’
‘Health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “The SNP must ensure that frailty teams do not end up punishing elderly patients by acting as bouncers to keep grandparents in need of care away from the door, but are meaningful support for older patients who are also among the most vulnerable.”
The negative framing is extreme – ‘punishing’, ‘bouncers’, keeping ‘grandparents in need .. away’. Crafted carefully to imply ‘concern’, IMHO this was and remains despicable stuff.
And now we know the RCEM is recommending that the NHS in England should follow Scotland’s lead! Will the British Labour Party government in Westminster adopt the same ‘tone’ in response to the RCEM’s recommendation to that used by the British Labour Party’s health spokesperson in Holyrood?
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Are you okay John?
JB
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I was a wee bit concerned as well, JB.
Liz S
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Thanks Liz S
I’m struggling a bit at the moment by the blog is a distraction. Nothing life threatening just wearing me down. I’m not the only one I know.
Onwards and…..onwards.
Best wishes
John
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Sorry not got back sooner to your response , I , and others , were just a wee bit worried about you, as I think it was last week that you were not feeling well .
You do a fantastic job with this blog and all of your posts are superb and expose so much of the hypocrisy and fake news taht we are subjected to via UK parties and their media.
Take it easy , enjoy the sun and I know that all of those who love this site and visit it daily, will always stay loyal to this blog and your excellent posts.
All the best
Liz S
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Yeah Hope John is Okay.
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Thanks ArtyHetty
I’m struggling a bit at the moment by the blog is a distraction. Nothing life threatening just wearing me down. I’m not the only one I know.
Onwards and…..onwards.
Best wishes
John
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Thanks JB
I’m struggling a bit at the moment by the blog is a distraction. Nothing life threatening just wearing me down. I’m not the only one I know.
Onwards and…..onwards.
Best wishes
John
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As long as you are definitely alright! Get plenty of rest, read a good book, don’t do any mathematics, and loads of fresh air especially while the sun is out!!! All the very best.
JB
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Just a wee thing, when a person is switched say from income support (by the English DWP) to their dreadful ‘universal credit’ they don’t pay anything to the person for at least FIVE weeks. What they do is tell you they can give you a ‘loan’, yes a loan. So left with no choice a claimant has to go into debt to eat, (to be able to pay for heating/eating and also more importanty, rent!) to the DWP. Up to about £1500 I think it is. That ‘loan’, a debt has to be repaid over a few months…leaving the person with less money to survive on than is needed.
So basically the UKEngGov plunges people into debt deliberately!
I would like to see all benefots, so called, Social security in Scotland, taken out of England’s control in Scotland, but of course the problem would be a burden on Scotland’s reduced ‘block grant’ by the EngGov.
Debt is a control mechanism, and we know it’s a ‘benefit’ to banks and other money lenders like the English DWP!
That disabled MSP, voting for cuts to those already struggling in poverty who are like her, disabled, is utterly disgusting, how does she sleep at night? Well, very soundly taking masses of money from the public purse, no worrying about how to pay the rent or heating bills. Grifter.
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Exscure typos…and it looks like my name is ‘grifter’ lol! Oh dear.
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Oh god I give up have a god afternoon all, and John, take care.
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O/T The British Labour Party is under pressure in Wales with the Senedd elections upcoming in 2026. It seems that having British Labour Party colleagues in government in Westminster is being seen as an electoral handicap. The party leaders in Wales – unlike those of the British Labour Party in Scotland – are now seeking to differentiate themselves from LINO (the Labour In Name Only party) that dominates Westminster with its MPs from England and Scotland.
A BBC Wales analysis offers an insight into how Labour’s First Minister Eluned Morgan intends to promote voting for Labour in 2026. It also provides an insight into how this dysfunctional Union operates under Labour.
First some background: the BBC News website (May 6) had this headline: ‘Wales’ Labour first minister says she will ‘call out’ Starmer’. We learn the Ms Morgan ‘called for UK ministers to halt part of its plans to cut disability benefits, rethink cuts to the winter fuel allowance, and demanded Wales benefit more from wind power via the Crown Estate.
But, according to the BBC: ‘Sir Keir Starmer said there would not be a rethink on winter fuel cuts, but that the government needed to “explain the decisions we’ve taken”.
The BBC also notes: ‘Meanwhile a poll published on Tuesday suggested that support for Labour among voters had fallen to a historic low. It comes after the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, introduced changes to personal independence payments (PIP) and cuts to health-related universal credit during the Spring Statement.’ (my emphasis)
And the BBC shares more from the Welsh FM: “Where we disagree, we will say it, where we see unfairness, we will stand up for it.” She insisted that what she was describing was not a “split” but was instead “grown up modern government” and patriotic.’
(So it seems we have a British Labour Party FM as a Welsh patriot expressing discontent with the actions of her own party’s PM in all powerful Westminster, himself a self-proclaimed English patriot.)
I found this quote from Ms Morgan particularly interesting : “We saw them take our coal, we saw them take our water. We will not let them take our wind, not this time, not on my watch”
Who are the ‘them’ of which she speaks? Successive UK governments aka governments of England? After all, in this UK what England wants England usually can get given Westminster’s electoral arithmetic. The FM’s description of Wales in Union is hardly a ringing endorsement of a ‘better together’ Union.
The BBC reports the results of an opinion poll regarding voting intentions at the 2026 Senedd elections: ‘Meanwhile, Labour has slumped to a historic low in a new YouGov opinion poll which suggests the party is supported by just 18% of the Welsh public. ITV Wales/Cardiff University’s Barn Cymru Senedd election poll puts Plaid Cymru in the lead on 30%, Reform on 25%, and the Tories on 13%. The Liberal Democrats polled at 7%, and the Greens at 5%.’
The article ends with an ‘analysis’ by BBC Wales’ political editor: ‘The argument goes that as a Labour first minister she is the only one who can be in the room with Keir Starmer – a first minister from another party would be shouting from the outside. It comes with risk. If she shouts louder and still does not get what she wants, then how will that go down with voters?’
So ‘the only one who can be in the room’ with the UK’s PM – and not having to ‘shout from the outside’ – is a FM from the PM’s own party! Really? Is that what a British Labour Party political leader will pitch to voters? (Pity the voters of NI: condemned to shouting from the outside as LINO doesn’t even stand candidates there!)
So much for Labour-promoted ‘federalism’ for the UK! And what happened to Labour’s other big idea to strengthen the Union, the Council of the Nations and Regions – anything changed since it met in Edinburgh in October 2024?
Source https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9v7gn9729o
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It is surely a democratic anomaly to have politicians sitting in your parliament who are essentially working for their party that is registered in England.
Especially when that party, as in Labour in Wales, are in control of your parliament.
Yes we have SNP and Plaid Cymru with a few seats at Westminster, but they will never be able to control that parliament, or even have much of a say in crucial matters, and on crucial policies, as we saw when the SNP asked for a vote on a ceasefire.
Even at a more local level, as in councils, those in control are not Scottish parties, they work for their masters in London, ultimately. You just have to look at city of Edinburgh to see just how the English based parties controlling the council are wrecking the city, wasting money and overpaying council employees as they have been doing for many years. They really are taking the rip out of the people.
Let’s see what Labour’s minions are instructed to lie about in the next few months to try to con the people of Scotland.
‘Council of Nations and regions’ sounds desperate.
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