Journalists need to put Scottish Labour in the hot seat

With Labour immediately adopting the same “fiscal rules” as the Tories when in government at Westminster, while rejecting calls to end the poverty-inducing “two-child cap” and introducing means testing for the Winter Fuel Payment (effectively pushing more poor pensioners – especially in Scotland – further into poverty), that promise already rings hollow.

Yet, although Mr Sarwar can unfailingly be seen across the UK’s news channels whenever there is a perceived criticism of the SNP government (whether that criticism is legitimate or not), he only very selectively appears, if at all.

Meanwhile, further stories reveal the Labour Government’s betrayal of many of the poorest and most vulnerable in our unequal and fragile society while many of the “fringe benefits” accepted by prominent Labour politicians would even embarrass some (but admittedly not many) Tory politicians.

BBC Scotland and most of the UK mainstream media are failing to subject Sarwar, the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, to an appropriate level of robust political scrutiny. Until rigorous answers are provided, questions that should be persistently posed to the illusive master of the vacuous soundbite whenever he is found (or deigns to meet with selected journalists), include:

• Why do you think “all roads lead to Westminster” except the road from Scotland?
• Why do you think the Labour Welsh Government is “grossly incompetent”? Given comparable statistics in commonly devolved areas such as health and education, this is the logical conclusion if his true opinion is that the SNP Scottish Government is “incompetent”.
• Why will it take a decade, or much longer, to fix Britain if Britain is not fundamentally broken? How can a country grow and thrive within a failing authoritarian union that in spite of exploiting that country’s huge resources, does not provide adequate infrastructure or funding and severely limits that country’s borrowing powers?
• When will the Acorn carbon capture project receive the funding promised by the UK Government?
• What is the latest date by which energy bills in Scotland will start to come down as promised by the Labour Party prior to the General Election?
• How will maintenance of the “triple lock”, which effectively offsets the effects of inflation, compensate pensioners losing the Winter Fuel Payment and make them “better off”, in the words of Sarwar’s boss Sir Keir Starmer?
• Do you think politicians should pay tax on “fringe benefits” received as “gifts” from third parties?

There are many other questions serious professional journalists could ask Starmer’s Scottish puppet but until we start to receive some precise answers to the questions posed above, then collectively journalists in Scotland are not providing the level of political reporting deserved by the people of Scotland.

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry

I’M Keir Harmer. I harm children and their parents with my inhumane two-child benefit cap. That’s just what I do.

Recently, I was genuinely worried that I was only harming the young and the working-age adults, so have now decided to go the full hog and harm the already struggling pensioners by taking away their Winter Fuel Payment. Go me!

That’ll please my donors in the private medical insurance industry as more and more of the oldies’ health starts to fail, and with my little posh-voiced talking dummy Wes shouting at every opportunity that the NHS is broken, well it’s happy days indeed and I am in for a huge bung from my private medical care chums. Go me!

I am genuinely delighted I have already managed to harm just about every age group in the working classes in my first 100 days in office. In this time, I have already managed to renege on just about everything I blatantly lied to you all about in my election campaign, so from the bottom of my lying, cheating heart, thank you so much for being so gullible.

Especially you Scots, who really should know not to fall for Labour Party lies and deceit by now after being robbed blind, lied to, cheated on and denied being allowed to govern yourselves for decades now as we help ourselves to your enormous resources on land and sea every minute of every day. And we simply can’t believe you fell for the old “Stand on your own two feet? You’re too wee, too poor and too stupid” malarkey that even we didn’t think anyone could ever fall for.

With my little anti-Scotland, pathological lying, nodding dugs Anas and Jackie at the helm attacking every good idea your wee Toy Town government comes up with. Yes, the wee dugs know they are in fact great ideas but we attack them so much people start yet again falling for our lies.

And we ain’t going anywhere until there’s not an industry left up there, there’s not an ounce of oil left in your seas, a nuclear-free bay in sight or a pipeline in everyone’s front garden so you can watch your lovely, lovely resources flow past your frosted window in your living room as you can’t afford to put your heating on, and you watch the energy being stolen in front of your eyes. Isn’t life just wonderful being me!

I have to go now but have to plan even more misery and yet more U-turns, but I will be in touch as would love to stay for longer but I have 65 million lives to ruin. And I’m feeling a bit peckish so it’s a bucket of popcorn for me in front of the flat screen today to catch up on my daily dose of genocide in the Middle East.

It’s nice to think I and my crooked politicians and military commanders could have stepped in and stopped this before it started, but hey that simply wouldn’t have been cricket and what on earth would I have to watch on a wet, rainy afternoon?

Remember now you naughty, naughty people: if I find out your children or your grandchildren have any wee piggy banks hidden away with coins in them or I find someone over the age of 60 has turned their heating on up there, expect a knock on your door!

Toodle pip, you Scottish mugs!

Iain K

Dunoon

THE vote to reverse the cut in Winter Fuel Payments at the Labour Party conference may not be binding on Starmer, but for the unions to get truly off the hook for this, they need to tell Starmer to adhere to the vote in conference and reverse the cuts and if he doesn’t, they will withhold funding and support for the Labour Party.

A wee word added to remind Starmer what the principles of the Labour Party and movement are would be grist to the mill.

If Starmer and Reeves fail to reverse this and devise a means to tax the wealthy to recover the benefit amount that was to be wrested from pensioners, then they should be forced to step aside.

My wish is that if these arrogant clones of the Truss/Kwarteng pair refuse, those in the party with a social conscience (none in Scotland) switch allegiance to a newly created party, the unions shift their support and Starmer is left with his rump of the Labour Party he claimed to have changed.

Starmer and Reeves’ legacy may be the destruction of the Labour Party as was, something even Thatcher and Blair failed to achieve.

Jim Taylor

Scotland not Britain

THE ongoing “freebies” scandal engulfing the Labour Party has brought to mind an incident from the 1966 General Election which has had a lasting effect on me.

As headteacher of the local village school, I was notified that the LibDem candidate had booked the school hall for a campaign meeting. The candidate, one by the name of John MacKay, subsequently contacted me to see if I would chair his meeting. Although I was not a Liberal voter, I happily agreed to do so.

It turned out John MacKay was the same age as me and was a maths teacher in Oban High School. He was a very good speaker and didn’t half lay into the Tory candidate Sir Michael Noble – a past secretary of state for Scotland. John MacKay had an obvious deep dislike and distrust of the Tories – sentiments with which I concurred.

After the meeting, we both went back to the hotel where he was resident. I bought him a pint – and here’s the rub – he informed me ONLY after the pint was pulled that he was unable to buy one back because of the Representation of the People’s Act. Fair enough, thought I, he’s not a bad lad and I didn’t mind buying a pint for someone who dislikes the Tories as much as me!

But here’s rub number two – turncoat John MacKay stood in Argyll as a TORY in 1974, coming second, and again in 1979 when he won the seat. He went on to be a successful Tory politician, serving in the cabinet and was later elevated to the House of Lords as Baron MacKay of Ardbrecknish.

However, there is a happy ending to this tale – after 58 years of frequent traumatic flashbacks of that unrequited pint, writing this has been cathartic.

I finally have closure. I’m ready to move on!

Bill Drew

Kirriemuir

THE recent Scottish Government report highlighting the work done to date on improving the lives of care-experienced children and young people is to be welcomed. There is, however, much to be done.

“The Promise” is a commitment that by 2030, all care-experienced children in Scotland will grow up loved, safe and respected, with the ability to reach their full potential.

Those in this category represent some of the most vulnerable members of our society, experiencing considerably fewer life chances than their peers, with poorer health and educational outcomes.

Recent data reinforces this, noting that the figures for exclusion of pupils who have been looked after in the past year are still between five and six times as high as the levels found across the total pupil population. This is despite a commitment that all formal and informal exclusions of care-experienced pupils would end.

Scotland is still very far away from achieving that.  As a society, if we want to build a care system which has love and respect at its very heart, we must provide the resources necessary to ensure that that this group of individuals get the vital care and support they so desperately need.

Only through this can we ensure that “The Promise” is kept.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition: Kenny Graham, Falkland House School; Lynn Bell, LOVE Learning; Stephen McGhee, Spark of Genius; Niall Kelly, Young Foundations THE National reports that the CCA Arts Centre on Sauchiehall Street will be closing.

The very soul of the city is decaying. Arts centres are critical social beings that need to be nurtured not tortured.

The CCA offers developing artists a space to create and to exhibit in the hope of being creatives and social healers.

Surely there must be a financial source for the survival of such a vital institution for Glasgow?

Thom Cross

Carluke