Gordon Brown today kicked off Scottish Labour's general election campaign with a commitment to end Tory austerity in Scotland.
He said:
"Today in Scotland, 71,000 depend on food banks, compared with 7,500 four years ago; 80,000 are on zero hour contracts; 180,000 are on council waiting lists; 200,000 children have gone to school today ill-equipped because their families are on the breadline; and, in total, 820,000 Scots are in poverty.
And so while others want to talk about coalitions, deals, pacts, hung parliaments, confidence and supply motions – insider Westminster talk – we will spend all our time discussing with the people what really matters – poverty, unemployment, deprivation, bad housing, inequality and the neglect of the NHS."
Labour, Scotland's party of social justice and fairness, in 2015 and 2016 will add an additional £800 million to the Scottish spending total.
And where will the money go?
Despite all their public demands to end Tory austerity, the extract below reveals that the SNP have publicly committed themselves in exchanges between the Scottish Government and the Treasury to a ZERO spending rise in 2015-16.
He said:
"Today in Scotland, 71,000 depend on food banks, compared with 7,500 four years ago; 80,000 are on zero hour contracts; 180,000 are on council waiting lists; 200,000 children have gone to school today ill-equipped because their families are on the breadline; and, in total, 820,000 Scots are in poverty.
And so while others want to talk about coalitions, deals, pacts, hung parliaments, confidence and supply motions – insider Westminster talk – we will spend all our time discussing with the people what really matters – poverty, unemployment, deprivation, bad housing, inequality and the neglect of the NHS."
Labour, Scotland's party of social justice and fairness, in 2015 and 2016 will add an additional £800 million to the Scottish spending total.
- Bank bonus tax; allocated to Scotland: £150m
- Mansion tax and tax avoidance measures; allocated to Scotland: £200m
- Reforms of corporation tax, action on false self-employment & investment funds changes; allocated to Scotland: £150m
- Bank levy; allocated to Scotland: £100m
- Tuition fee package made up mostly of pension tax relief; allocated to Scotland: £200m
And where will the money go?
- A guarantee of a job and training for every young person out of work for a year;
- Action targeted to support the NHS;
- Action for ending the bedroom tax and to create an Anti-Poverty Fund to reduce the need for food banks;
- And action to help restore college cuts and colleges places, help with grants for students and help for the out-of-education teenagers who need a better chance.
Despite all their public demands to end Tory austerity, the extract below reveals that the SNP have publicly committed themselves in exchanges between the Scottish Government and the Treasury to a ZERO spending rise in 2015-16.
Why? They want to go into the Scottish election campaign of 2016 blaming Westminster for a failure to provide additional spending to Scotland. So it suits their purposes to be able to claim additional new spending has been ruled out in the months leading up to that result. Except that they are the co-authors of the yearlong austerity and the zero additional spending is their own policy.
Martin Freeman sets out very clearly in tonight's election broadcast the choice facing Scotland. The SNP is only interested in exploiting austerity. Scottish Labour will end Tory austerity.
Martin Freeman sets out very clearly in tonight's election broadcast the choice facing Scotland. The SNP is only interested in exploiting austerity. Scottish Labour will end Tory austerity.
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