AS the contest to lead the Scottish Branch office of the Labour party draws to a conclusion, there is one person that could have shone above all others, and after her measured comments on Question Time from Kilmarnock on November 2. That person is Jeane Freeman OBE MSP, representing Carrick, Cummock and Doon Valley.
Would she have been the person to pull the Scottish Labour party together? Found the centre ground, and succeeded in putting an end to their continual infighting?
Jeane Freeman started off her political career as a member of the Communist Party, followed by the Labour Party, where she rose through the ranks to become a senior advisor to Jack McConnell, former First Minister. In this role she worked on finance and budgets: she also claims some responsibility to getting Jack McConnell; to wear the infamous pinstriped kilt on Tartan Day.
Freeman is a woman of experience and skill and certainly cannot be described as a shrinking violet, as her CV testifies.
She has been a member of the Parole Board, established Apex Scotland a training and employment provider for ex-offenders, held roles in the Scottish Police Service Authority Board, and has had roles on boards of the NHS.
Jeane Freeman has quietly and quickly moved through the ranks of the SNP, after her talent was spotted by Nicola Sturgeon as early as 2014 when she first spoke out in favour of Scottish Independence.
She has risen in this space of time from member to Cabinet member, responsible for social security since May 2016. Social security payments have to reflect fairness and to suit the needs of the claimants, a task she will strive to achieve with her well-measured comments on the subject.
The time and research that is going into this task is clear: it has to be right before it is rolled out, unlike Universal Credit.
What Scottish Labour has lost, and it does look like they will not easily replace her experience and skills, is certainly there for all to see.
She is a great asset to the Scottish Government, and possibly a contender for First Minister when Nicola Sturgeon calls time on her tenure as First Minister.
Robert McCaw
Renfrew
WITH the heirs of General Franco locking up the democratically elected government of Catalonia, the head of the Spanish army is now threating to intervene directly there.
According to the chief of the Spanish army, his plans to intervene in Catalonia are part of similar planning by the NATO countries across Europe.
The last intervention of the Spanish army in Catalonia came in 1939. At that time, it was under the control of Franco and it massacred thousands of Catalan leaders who had opposed fascist rule.
The actions of Spain in locking up political opponents puts them on a par with Milosevic when he was Serbian President. Spain is now a pariah state which exists outwith the norms of Western democratic states.
As shocking as the actions of Spain have been, the reaction of the EU are worse as they have become compact enablers for Spanish fascism. The response from some Scottish unionists as well can only be described and bloodthirsty fanaticism.
The EU is backing Rajoy because he is a reliable enforced of austerity and militarism.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee
WHEN people are prepared to pay 23 per cent to borrow money on a credit card, what possible difference will a quarter of a percent increase in base rate make to inflation? For base-rate adjustment to have any effect at all, it has to start in double figures, as the experience of the 1970s proved.
The real way to curb inflation is to stop the banks creating money from thin air by means of mere computer entries.
But more worryingly, the present £1.7 trillion of consumer debt — much of it on those expensive credit cards — has been incurred by those using it to pay everyday living costs such as food and heating, and even for the payment of income tax, we learn from HMRC.
Now that Christmas approaches, we can expect consumer debt to hit £2 trillion, as presents will also have to be financed by credit.
What a mess we are in. Control of the private banking system and the issue of real money by the state, in line with our actual prosperity, is the only solution.
Malcolm Parkin
Kinross
I HAVE to hand it to the news readers on BBC Breakfast’s Scottish news segment, they never appear to blush when reading out the bulletin they are given. It was bad enough when we had “The BBC, through freedom of information has learned that the Scottish Government is falling down on the job”.
This has now been replaced by “A report in the Times Newspaper”. This English-based Tory newspaper it would seem tells us that the number of people dying while waiting for a hospital appointment (in Scotland) has increased by sixty percent. Sadly it did not tell us the full story. How many of this sixty percent had serious medical conditions that were already being treated by the NHS, and how many were of an age that a few years ago would have been deemed fortunate to have lived so long?
Yes, I am beginning to sound like a broken record on this and will to do so until Scotland get the public-service broadcaster it deserves and pays through the nose for.
Walter Hamilton
St Andrews
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