Ten bad reasons
With apologies to Jason Donovan, we felt we should probably have a look at the latest election leaflet Scottish Labour are putting through people’s doors.
We wouldn’t want voters to have too many broken hearts.
Let’s break that down, shall we?
——————————————————————————————————–
Misleading. The NHS is devolved to the Scottish Government, which makes all the decisions about who it employs. You CANNOT get 1000 more nurses for Scotland by voting Labour in this election.
That’s illiterate – if prices can move, in any direction, they’re not “frozen” – but also pretty meaningless, because energy prices are falling right now, and the chances of them being above the current level by the end of the “freeze” period are pretty slim.
The plan is also illogical. If prices can be reduced voluntarily but not increased, then companies will choose to avoid passing on any saving in costs for fear that they won’t be able to increase the price again if costs go up, actually making energy MORE expensive than it should be.
If you FORCE them to cut when costs fall but then don’t let them increase again when costs go up, they might go bust. And if you let them both reduce AND increase bills dependent on the wholesale price, then in what sense have you “frozen” anything? It’s a total mess.
Woolly drivel. What is a “job-creating power”? What are actually being referenced here are some feeble partial powers around workfare, not actual jobs that get people into real employment.
A whole extra fortnight off work for new dads. Big whoop.
Unbelievably dishonest. No mention of the fact that the £8 figure won’t be reached for half a decade, and will in fact be lucky to just barely keep pace with inflation, making it no increase at all in real terms and therefore no more “fair” than the current one.
And what does “And a Living Wage” mean? Who for? How much? And if the Minimum Wage scheduled for 2020 is “fair pay”, why isn’t it enough to live on?
A barefaced lie. Six months of minimum-wage forced labour for 25 hours a week isn’t a “job”, it’s workfare with a new name. The minimum wage for young people is £2.73 to £5.13 an hour, and £68.75 a week (or even £128.25) isn’t a working wage.
Empty vague waffle. Every government always promises to tackle tax avoidance and close loopholes. It never actually happens, partly because they massively understaff HMRC’s pursuance department and partly because they’re hand-in-glove with the huge accountancy firms who shape the new policies and then promptly tell their clients what the new loopholes are.
Talking about “the SNP’s housing shortfall” takes quite some nerve, considering that Labour infamously built just SIX new council houses during its last term of power in Scotland, a number the SNP has increased exponentially in government. It’s highly disingenuous too, since – like the hiring of nurses – housebuilding is devolved to the Scottish Government and nothing anyone can do at this election will cause more homes to be built in Scotland.
But we also can’t actually find any details of this pledge anywhere. The last time Labour spoke about building 100,000 new houses – in the whole UK, not Scotland – was way back in 2012, when they were going to fund it using £4bn from the auction of the 4G mobile-phone spectrum. But that sale happened in 2013, and only raised £2.3bn, which has been spent by the coalition government anyway.
We’ve scoured the internet for anything about this supposed new promise and drawn a complete blank on any mention of it, let alone how it’d be paid for.
[EDIT 11.44am: see here]
Hollow weasel words again. What’s an exploitative zero-hours contract? Who decides? When will we be told the definition of what’s an “exploitative” one and what’s an acceptable one? In interviews and speeches Labour politicians have a very nasty habit of saying they’re just going to “end zero-hours contracts”, skating over the caveats. But they’re not.
In practice we can’t see how any legal distinction can ever be drawn between the two. A zero-hours contract is fundamentally exploitative, even if there are some individuals whose personal circumstances it actually suits. It can never be fair in principle to have a “job” which has no entitlement to earnings whatsoever.
——————————————————————————————————–
And that’s that. Ten “reasons” of which one is a triviality affecting a tiny proportion of the population and all the others are either actively dishonest, cynically misleading or so vague as to be totally meaningless.
We’re not sure it’s the “game-changer” Scottish Labour is counting on, frankly.
Careful, Rev. It might another of Blair’s wee wheezes. Ten Lies as it stands.
The BS well and truly deconstructed.
kind of boring also
no vision for a future scotland
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Byw5YkeCQAEhkTx.jpg
Plus in Kirkcudbright they are using the Postal Service to deliver it!! Very expensive!
AaaaaaaaaaaaAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
Sorry but I canna take it anymore
‘The NHS is devolved to the Scottish Government, which makes all the decisions about who it employs. You CANNOT get 1000 more nurses for Scotland by voting Labour in this election.’
— further point: raising extra taxation doesn’t boost Barnett consequentials.
Having denied us empowerment, Labour begs we empower them.
No thanks.
Another superb demolishment of SLAB lies and half truths. I think the biggest effect of the referendum was people’s increasing awareness that all that Labour say might not be the case. Curiously though labour seem not to have cottoned onto this…
Keep up the good work…
It’s really sad but I know some people are gonna buy into that nonsense.
I do wish there was Tony Blackburn Top 10 countdown music playing in the background to accompany the article.
Labour would be as well just shoving a blank bit of paper though folks letter box.
The effect would be the same. Folk staring at it with a puzzled look wondering what the hell it means (a damn sight more informative too)
Marvellous debunking.. again. It’s no wonder the fundraiser has gone through the roof.
All of this in a printable format, ideal for canvassing!
What’s not to like about Wings over Scotland?
They missed out Wee Willie Harris – or am I thinking of something else?
No need to apologise to Jason Donovan. His album was entitled Ten Good Reasons. Your post above has listed Ten Shite Reasons.
Cheers for the deconstruct rev. Mine just got ripped to shreds and binned as soon as it hit the mat along with the HM Gov. Propaganda leaflet it came with. Funny that eh?Both came together at the same time.
Yeh, it’s a really good leaflet!
So good in fact it prompted a 76 year old recipient to visit our SNP campaign hub yesterday and volunteer to deliver our leaflets in his local area.
A very welcome offer (and only one of an ever increasingg number of volunteers in Edinburgh)
It did take me some time to calm him down – wish I had seen your analysis (shredding) of the “leaflet” first.
Hard to imagine anyone would fall for such obviously cynical crap……but wait, there’s the BBC and the Scottish MSM to champion the cause
Item 4.
You can add to that you don’t get paternity leave if you are self employed.
Item 9.
What type of new homes?
Dennis Goldie in Falkirk claimed that 500 new homes had been built in the Falkirk area in his election leaflets, but he failed to mention that they were private builds.
They’re getting even more desperate and this rebuttal should be replicated and posted through all the doors in Scotland.
I am right in thinking that Labour brought in Zero hours contracts in the first place?
A reasonable, if undoubtedly partisan, evaluation of the document.
When this was delivered to my house, inside was the document from HM Government about the value of the Union. (Wings pastiched it a few days ago)
The previous Scottish Labour leaflet about a fortnight ago, which was about the NHS and the threats to it contained a booklet from a private health care provider declaiming that patients using their services could jump the queue for treatment. Labour’s document was highlighting waiting times!
Di d others have similar experiences that the Labour documents had inserts as I have described, or is it just something that happened because the particular delivery person for my house had bundled them together for ease of pushing through the letter box?
Didn’t they bring in the zero hours contracts in the first place?
I only have one good reason.They have proven themselves unworthy of Scotland
In a sentence:
LABOUR have nothing to offer anyone in the UK let alone Scotland in the coming election. Tories-nothing to offer either.
They really aren’t learning lessons are they? Election statements easily rubbished by a few minutes fact checking.
If I remember correctly Stu, Scottish Govt built more than 4300 houses last year. I’ll try & find a reference to it.
To put it in a nutshell. 10 bribes they cannot actually pay, by a party that probably won’t be elected. Surprised they didn’t print it on faux parchment with faux wax seal, like a vow…..
Labour,’licensed to lie’.
@Drew McMorrin 10:58am
Not sure they are managing to use foot soldiers to deliver anything. They are digging deep into their dwindling coffers this GE and a LOT of it will be going straight into Royal Mail’s pockets.
Postie brought ours too (Central Ayrshire)
I just wonder how many Labour MSPs/MEPs/MPs etc. and “supporters” have shares in it.
Once again Stu, congrats for going above and beyond the call of duty to examine this p*sh.
Are these people – really really stupid, chronically cynically amoral, pathological con-artists, or just plain bad-suckers with all of the above rolled into one crazy persona?
One thing’s for sure – the day of final accounting is coming.
I am having trouble with WING’s archive – I need Murphy’s quote that Gordon Brown was constitutionally correct to to seek a coalition with the Lib-Dems even though the Tories had more MP’s.
It was in a previous WING’s post along with similar from Mandelson.
Sorry to intrude on this post, but I need it for several letters I am writing to various journalists, and I have been trying to use the WING’s archive to get back and even trying to google it since ten O’Clock.
Can anyone help? (and a guide on using WING’s archive anywhere?)
O/T is there any easy way to check you are registered to vote?
Housebuilding in Scotland-all types & historical:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/TrendNewBuild
Labour say they want to increase house building across the UK to 200,000 per year (which is less than the number needed to avoid housing shortages and increasing prices – around 250,000 – and less still than how many were built for the first few decades after the war – around 300,000.)
http://b.3cdn.net/labouruk/89012f856521e93a4d_phm6bflfq.pdf
10% of that is 20,000, which is 100,000 over a five-year parliament. So basically they’re taking a UK target, dividing it by ten, and combining five years’ worth. Clearly a strong commitment there, totally tailored to Scotland’s needs…
(And none of which changes the fact that it’s a devolved issue…)
Incidentally, I’m sure that b.3cdn.net domain is where a lot of Better Together’s downloadable documents were held…
I fucking love trailing dots…
ScottieDog – yes, check with your local ERO. They’re the ones that *actually* know who’s registered or not – the UK government website knows bugger all.
http://www.debrastorr.org/2015/03/scare-stories-re-voter-registration.html
Stick your postcode in here to find out where your ERO is: http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/upcoming-elections-and-referendums/uk-parliamentary-general-election
£2 million for 1000 nurses. 2 grand per tax period which I is usually annual. Then the fools talk about exploitative wages.
Labour’s ideas remind me of the Spitting images Ronald Regan series “the presidents brain is missing”. Labour’s brain is missing, thankfully Scotland’s collective brain is active and its eyes wide open.
First time I’ve read this. It did come through my letterbox on Monday but it had barely touched the floor before it went in the bin. (I washed my hands afterwards).
Just the usual Labour/Unionist lies. Not worth the paper. A waste of resources.
To be fair to the Labour NorBritAcU…are they not just using the word ‘exploitative’ for effect here? Or do we have some evidence that they’re not actually planning to completely ban Zero Hour contracts? Maybe I’ve missed something.
Just got this through the post along with the disingenuous ‘Scotland’s Changing’ bumf. Do SLAB need cash from down south to fund their minute branch office as they won’t have the people to do the deliveries by hand? To get both through at the same time makes it an unfortunate coincidence on so many levels.
Fortunately I’m doing a clear out at present so they are both in the recycling bag already.
Ten reasons to vote Labour.
1 – You are a Labour MP.
2 – You are a Labour MSP.
3 – You are a Labout MEP.
4 – You are a Labour councillor.
5 – You are a Labour party member.
6 – You are a tosser.
7 – You are a liar.
8 – You have no shame.
9 – You are Jim Murphy.
10 – You are Jim Murphys goldfish.
Alasdair Macdonald says:
11 March, 2015 at 11:16 am
In other words it looks like Labour propaganda is being delivered free of charge by piggy-backing on the delivery of these other publications.
How is this declared in the election expenses column?
Free postage.
Free broadcasting and electioneering via the BBC.
Free irn-bru claimed on expenses by Murphy as he stomped through 100 towns in 100 days – while being paid by us to attend to his constituents in East Renfrewshire at Wastereminster.
ETC….
I’m not sure that labour political members believe this themselves but are spouting it off like it’s the gospel!
My problem is that we’re being subjected to the double speak of that guff that was called “The Vow”.
In other news I’ve seen today that the Daily Record’s sales have dipped below 100,000 and it’s Sunday Rag is not much better at 216,000.
It’s a shot in the dark … but I reckon that more of the folk out there are being switched on to the lies that Labour are telling to people all by themselves.
Still work to do though!
Aren’t all Zero-Hour contracts – even supply teaching – exploitative? Supply certainly is as to work one day, wait six weeks for payroll run, loses the benefits for two weeks but there is a period to reinstate. I am worse off.
I thought the deal was also to be that from sometime soon all leave for the birth of a baby could be shared, unless the mother has a C-section in which case she has to be off work for a while. So a mother could give birth, have six weeks maternity leave (because I believe that should be enforced as … major experience that leaves you.. drained) then dad could take the rest of the leave?
https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/overview Shared Paternal Leave.
Maybe the deal here is that you cannot take it both at the same time, but I think I saw something saying you can.
Oh dear, how 10 commendations become condemnations!
How can there be any tax loopholes, or a culture of underpaying tax, in the UK when Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling ruled The Treasury for so long?
For those living in Fife who want to check their electoral registration the number is 03451 555511. Do it or you risk losing about the only democratic right you have in this undemocratic UK!
Scottie – go to your local authority website and find the number for the Electoral Registration peeps. They will know if you give name and address.
If only the non-internet users could see this. Sadly there will be some people who believe much of what is stated in this.
Juteman – I think you’ll find reasons 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8 on your list render reason 9 moribund.
The paternity leave one is a pile of shite in any instance.
I know of no-one thats taken the full 2 weeks as Paternity Pay, preferring to take 1 week paternity and 1 week holidays due to paternity pay being so shockingly bad.
If you took a month paternity pay, you’d better be wealthy or you wont meet your bills.
Ant THATS people who can afford to take even the 1 week… many folk cant.
Given that its the most important time for you, your partner and the baby, it stands to reason more should be done to help.
I’d have been more impressed if he said he was doubling paternity pay, not paternity time.
Labour forgot one other promise that will get them more votes…
Free Beer Tomorrow
I,m in Wullie Bains Glas NE ..not a scoobie through the door!!
“Labour say they want to increase house building across the UK to 200,000 per year…
So presumably to be even remotely honest we have to subtract whatever the current total is from that?
And wow, how weaselly-worded is that document? “Get at least 200,000 homes built a year by 2020”? By who? Where? What kind of house? How expensive?
In the immortal words of BBC commentator John Inverdale, Labour are looking at things through “Rose-C**ted-Glasses.”
Says it all really.
He coined the phrase while referring to the career of former jockey John Francome.
Dross – and nothing more to offer. Certainly no big visions about social justice, inequality, etc.
Seriously, anyone voting Labour these days…
Got it this morning – as well as the UK government propaganda “Scotland’s changing” thing. Both straight to the recycle bin.
The Rev rips another red tory wish list to shreds, and so quickly!
It would be great if we could set up some kind of rapid response operation – to get these rebuttals printed on leaflets and delivered to the doors within a few days of the red tory propaganda appearing. The Rev has demonstrated that red tory lies can be dealt with effectively, but we have to ensure that the uninformed and the misinformed also get a chance to read the truth.
Got my NHSNP glossy flyer hand delivered this morning by one of a local team, well ken faces and names to me.
As for the labour promises… all woolly waffle!
Both my partner and I checked out voting eligibility with Fife Council a fortnight ago were OK.
I fucking love trailing dots…
Good man. In literature it’s called a pregnant pause.
Quite apart from all the other nonsensical and opportunist ambulance chasing policies, does workshy Murphy have any idea how long it actually take to train a nurse?
I saw Murphy on telly visit to a training centre where he looked like a big Jessie trying to pose with real workmen’s tools.
O/T
Almannysbunnet
Your question from previous thread
Will Miley Cyrus Twitter handle do? @MileyCyrus
It’s no fair. I haven’t had any leaflets from Labour so far. Are they ignoring all their voters in Helensburgh for some reason?
Re: electoral register.
Thanks for the replies!
(To the tune of 10 green bottles)
“There were 10 reasons to-vote Labour, posted on a wall
10 bits of waffle, that didn’t mean f*** all
And if one Wings reader, just cannae hae a guffaw
There’ll be no hope for all us and Murphy will walk tall”
Jim Murphy and the Slabber party are bringing back ‘Jackanory’ to win the Hollyrood election. Now that they are Independent from the Main Labour party, they do not appear to have not been told that we’re having a General election. God help us.
Back to Paternity:
Milibands offer means that if you took the whole 4 weeks you would get:-
£552.72 in paternity pay
Thats the equivalent of 85 hours at Minimum Wage, when the average hours for a month for a minimum wage worker is actually 160 (£1,040 per month Gross – £964 take home)
So if a working class person takes Labour up on their offer they will be £411.28 WORSE OFF for that month.
Shouldnt we be making it easier & less stressfull than that?
If you’ve just had a baby and you’re not wealthy, you can hardly afford to lose out on money.
How many people will stay at home if it means losing 43% of your take home pay for that month?
Come on Labour, try harder, up the Statutory pay instead.
Macca73 says:
“In other news I’ve seen today that the Daily Record’s sales have dipped below 100,000 and it’s Sunday Rag is not much better at 216,000.”
Source please, Macca.
“Labour is seeking to tackle what it calls the UK’s housing crisis by building 200,000 homes a year by 2020. Leader Ed Miliband will say (at conference) building levels have fallen to their lowest level for almost 100 years.” BBC News report, Sept 2014
———————-
“So our fifth national goal is that by 2025, for the first time in fifty years, this country will be building as many homes as we need. Doubling the number of first time buyers in our country.
Again it is going to require a massive national effort, a massive national effort. We won’t let large developers sit on land, we will say to small developers and construction companies that we will help them to build homes again in our country. We will build a new generation of towns, garden cities and suburbs creating over half a million new homes.” – Ed Miliband, Labour Conference 2014
———————-
“a million new homes across the United Kingdom, 100,000 of them here in Scotland.” Keiza Dugdale, Daily Record Dec 2014.
It would appear that Labour are having trouble in counting again.
You didn’t comment on the bit about raising paternity pay by £100 a week ?
Mine arrived via my postie, with the UK leaflet. I was trying to open the Labour one with my fingertips, as I knew it would be full of shite, I could smell it.
Complete and utter bull, even down to the name of Scottish Labour, which as we know, is not a registered party, but an accounting unit.
It was printed by the Anton Group in London, which no doubt explains using Royal Mail.
Received my “Vote Calum Kerr SNP” leaflet through the door this morning.
Hand delivered by one of the local team of footsoldiers.
Straight up onto one of my windows.
Waiting on some big SNP posters arriving to put up also.
🙂
Haven’t received any of the Red Tory or Sally Carbuncle crap yet.
The guaranteed job, training or employment for young people already happens in Scotland. All school leavers are followed up to help them get into college/uni or onto a training programme or apprenticeship. If they don’t want that they’re supported to get their CV into order and helped to apply for jobs. The Careers Scotland staff work damn hard at school leaving time trying to track every single leaver and ascertain if they’ve got a ‘positive destination’ or need support achieving one of the available options. So for Labour to claim in Scotland something that the Scottish Government has had in place for years already is just them playing to a gallery filled with right-wing elderly people thinking all young people are wasters and deadbeats.
Labour, pre ref, as part of Better Together stated that a NO vote was the only way to secure continued research funding for Scottish Universities.
We were told a YES vote could result in millions of pounds being cut from Scottish Universites through losing access to research funding.
I was somewhat surprised to read this recently, given the NO vote last September ( the cuts are from research funding ) ….
SCOTTISH universities are facing an unexpected £20 million cut to their budget, new figures show…..
I’m beginning to think that the Labour Party’s lies are not new
Got begging letter from SNP but it didn’t enclose a payment form for credit card details etc
Christ on a rope…….I have seen some meaningless drivel in my day but this lot takes the cake.
One can only assume they have given up and are simply trotting out crap to fill advertising commitments.
Like I say, binned two seconds after it hit the carpet.
BTW, as an aside, it’s always stupid to announce you will build x number of houses, and much more relevant to state the monetary value, or % of the budget, you will increase.
House building is so subject to the vagaries of markets, the number you can build cannot be predicted, unless your budget has no limit.
As an example of housing sins for me from Labour, they did not repeal The Right to Buy council housing, thereby lumbering councils with years of historic debt from Maggie’s time. SNP repealed it as soon as they could.
Labour also pursued stock transfer of council housing, which wasted billions of public money.
They make me sick.
Honest question, but what’s the response to the GERS figures today? This is what’s being quoted:
Percentage of UK taxation revenue Scotland generates: 8.6%
Percentage of UK spending Scotland receives: 9.2%
Reply to Algernon Pondlife
“It’s no fair. I haven’t had any leaflets from Labour so far. Are they ignoring all their voters in Helensburgh for some reason?”
R U kiddin’? Dae ye want them tae get radiation or blown up by a Soviet/Iranian missile aimed at the Hellingsburgh chipshoaps?
You’re all being a bit harsh i reckon.
After all Labour have already cracked down on the lazy yet tax clever by saying they will use Scottish pensioner tax relief to help pay for student fees in England and Wales.
oh and “how will they fund nurses in a devolved Scotland”…didnt you see Jim Murphy answer that very question by saying “We will take the money, and give them it!”…now theres a man of action rather than well detailed policy!
Is the SNP lead hardening still further?
Scot goes Pop!
Sub sample but lets not swagger too much …yet!
They must think some people will believe it!
The mission of all of us is to get the alternative view out there too.
The problem is, the type of people who will believe that nonsense won’t be reading WoS. Probably, they won’t be accessing the Internet at all.
Contact and education has to be leaflets through doors and face to face persuasion.
I was leafleting for the SNP yesterday. The more people who get involved the better.
When will WoS have something non-Internet based to distribute?
Rev at 11:46
‘How expensive?’
If they are over £2,000,000 they’ll be able to apply the Mansion Tax so they’ll be self-funding and/or pay for another million nurses.
Got my copy this am via the postie along with the Smith Comm rubbish, something from TalkTalk and something for new windows. Each party used to be allowed a number of free deliveries by Royal Mail during an election but I expect that went out the window with privatisation.
Cadogan Enright says:
11 March, 2015 at 11:24 am
I am having trouble with WING’s archive – I need Murphy’s quote that Gordon Brown was constitutionally correct to to seek a coalition with the Lib-Dems even though the Tories had more MP’s.
I think this is the quote you want…the post was called
“The Forgetful Ones”,feb 5t 2015.
Can be found by searching..murphy brown coalition,
cant do links,sorry.
The Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said he believed Mr Brown would be able to put together a coalition.
Speaking at a post-election press conference in Glasgow he said as the sitting PM, Mr Brown had the “constitutional and moral right” to try to form a government.
Bit O/T, was doing Youtube-ing last night and the advert from Scotland Office on “Scotland’s changing” popped up.
@Doug Daniel
The b.3cdn.net domain is connected to Blue State Digital, whose clients (https://www.bluestatedigital.com/our-work) include the Labour Party (UK, not Scotland), but don’t seem to include Better Together.
Was the UK Labour party paying for Better Together’s web hosting?
Is there any way of returning the Labour leaflet that arrives so that the Labour party have to pay for it’s return??
I think something similar was mentioned during the referendum.
I don’t want or need to read this pish, it’s akin to cold calling really.
Those thousand nurses and that Mansion tax wheeze…
…Conditional on firstly a Labour UK government being formed and secondly a Labour Scottish Government being formed. Is that right?
And its conditional why?
If the SNP enable Labour to form a government, surely the legislation will still go forward? (cough)
Surely our honourable Labour government would then free those funds to whichever party formed a government in Scotland? (cough, hack)
At which point we need Mr Murphy why?
We got a letter from Dundee Council yesterday confirming our registration and asking to be contacted if anyone eligible was not listed. Note it made a mockery of individual registration by being addressed to both of us under one cover. So presumably you could just snaffle that and keep someone in your household ignorant of their registration. Poor.
Darnit Rev, I got this in the post today, and I was going to do a takedown. That said, yours was far more concise and complete than mine could have been.
That said, I think we should be positive. How about TEN REASONS TO VOTE SNP?
1 – We will hold Westminster to account
Every other major Westminster party standing in Scotland has to adhere to the UK party line: the SNP will stand up for Scotland where other parties cannot
2 – – We will fight for more powers
The SNP have proven the people of Scotland are best placed to make decisions about Scotland, and will continue to see more powers devolved to the Scottish parliament
3 – We will end nuclear weapons in Scotland
The SNP have drawn a red line calling to stop the renewal of nuclear weapons in Scotland
4 – We will fight to end Austerity
The SNP have proved through 7 years of government at Holyrood that austerity is not inevitable
etc
O/T
sorry but WTH?
An online petition calling for the BBC to “reinstate” suspended Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been signed by more than a 300,000 people.
DR sales have halved since the VOW. Lost 100,000? a day. Lost £thousands. Going, going, down. That will teach them. Open their mouths and put their foot in it.
Labour are having this guff delivered by post because they don’t have enough members to go round all the doors. Or maybe the members they do have are just too embarrassed to be associated with it. Either way, it’s a great contribution to the paper-recycling industry. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be used for toilet paper in its current form: it’s like Jim Murphy – too slippy.
Ten pillars of pish…
They’ve used a BoE fiver as well. F’in tubes
O/T
Latest GERS figures published today-Scotgov income & expenditure
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/GERS
What is it with Scottish Labour and printers? My local MP, the redoubtable Jimmy Hood has just had his printed in Cardiff!
O/T
David Wardrope says:
11 March, 2015 at 12:43 pm
“Bit O/T, was doing Youtube-ing last night and the advert from Scotland Office on “Scotland’s changing” popped up”
For anyone else wanting to avoid nasty UK propoganda on youtube and the like you may want to download and install
Adblock plus
https://archive.today/AzGJw 😀
Unfortunatley it doesn’t block Jeremy Clarkson or the EBC 😳
The above and the one from the Scotland Office were binned.
It’s beyond a joke that these leaflets are being distributed by the posties.
They are all too feart to come to peoples doors and meet them face to face and get a few home truths flung at them.
Haven’t received an labour leaflets in my area. I think they know it’s a waste of time. Just got a letter in from conservative Alexander Burnett, though. Personally address to Mr & Mrs. Won’t bore you with the details but it ends “To beat the SNP, I need the support of everyone who believes in keeping the United Kingdon together and would ask Labour and Liberal Democratic voters to lend me their vote in May.”
I didn’t know we had a chance to break the UK apart in May but there you go. Latest poll has SNP 39% Con 27% LibDem (incumbent) 15% and Labour 13%. Our SNP candidate was just chosen and is 23 rear old Stuart Donaldson. He is currently out campaigning 6 days a week. Burnett and Lib/dem Smith on the other hand I have never seen. It is a bit parky at this time of year though.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/westminster/481940/public-health-ministers-son-standing-for-westminster/
“Just got a letter in from conservative Alexander Burnett, though. Personally address to Mr & Mrs. Won’t bore you with the details but it ends “To beat the SNP, I need the support of everyone who believes in keeping the United Kingdon together and would ask Labour and Liberal Democratic voters to lend me their vote in May.””
Can you scan/photograph that for us?
If these promises actually appear in their manifesto would that give them a mandate to remove devolved powers should they win enough seats in Scotland?
They don’t actually say that the nurses will be working in the NHS do they?
The zero hour contract bit is actually a fair point made badly. The exploitation consists of using them to get round employers legal obligations to holiday pay and to a lesser extent sick pay. It’s just as bad with constant overtime.
100,000 new homes pfff i’ve built more pitching a tent early in the morning
“Honest question, but what’s the response to the GERS figures today?”
Response: that’s why you set up an oil fund.
Stoker says:
11 March, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Macca73 says:
“In other news I’ve seen today that the Daily Record’s sales have dipped below 100,000 and it’s Sunday Rag is not much better at 216,000.”
Source please, Macca.
I can’t get to it from my works PC but the source was originaly from Scot2Scot’s page but the link was to CQNMagazine[dot]com
I admit I was getting off the bus for work when I caught this.
Surely it should say
TEN REASONS
TO VETO
LABOUR
?
The best Debunking of Ten items since George Carlin done the Ten Commandments
Alasdair Macdonald
I asked the same question yesterday – it looks like Labour had all their leaflets delivered with the HM Gov ‘Scotland’s Changing’. It would be interesting to find out who paid for it…
I raised ‘Scotland’s Changing’ with the Electoral Commission. A pointless exercise, as anticipated. I didn’t specify the publication I was complaining about, just that it was deceptive, political in nature, delivered within 60 days of a GE inside another political leaflet and displayed no contact details or printer’s address.
The EC’s response was, ‘we don’t regulate political campaigns’; if you have a problem, take it up with a) the party who distributed the leaflet or b) make a formal complaint to the police.
“Hello Police, I’d like to complain about HM Government. Hello. Hello?”
Their anthem could be ‘Better The Devil You Know’ by wee Kylie
But hopefully she will be singing ‘Especially For You’ when we send down a load of genuine Scottish MP’s
Ach well I should be so lucky… Ok I’ll stop noo 🙂
O/T
BBC Radio Scotland debate just now with three Unionist commentators discussing personal attacks on political leaders can you imagine BBC London having a debate without any supporter of the largest political party.
They wouldn’t get away with that for long particularly in this run up to a General Election.
Postie put two of each leaflet through my door. What a cheek. Although hopefully that might mean someone else didn’t get one at all…
Anyone got a free post address where I can send them back to?
@Stoker
Just to let you know that figure is off too … it’s 200,000 which is still damning for a newspaper designed to be “Scotland’s Voice”
Yeah … like a goose farting in the fog!
I think the term for this leaflet is, wind and pish.
For anyone interested.
“Daily Record – 9.7 per cent drop = from 239,174 on average during February last year, to 216,029 last month”
“Sunday Mail – 9.9 per cent down = 270,508 to 243,694”
Source: Allmediascotland[dot]com
Got my ” All new powers for Scotland ” leaflet today. Sent it back to the HM GOV, House of Commons, London , SW1A 2TT.
I told them what I thought of it in one word!
Surely the Clarkson affair is worthy of a national day of mourning?
Seems to be wall to wall wailing and gnashing at their hero being suspended for allegedly throwing a punch. I’m sure No one can imagine this erudite gent doing that???
In other news, the broadcasters are being accused of being unconstitutional, and biased if they empty chair Cameron.
Women for Independence happily empty chaired Lib Dem and Tory at their hustings on Sunday 🙂 in Cumbernauld.
Wot, not GERS coverage? Why’s that then?
Rev Stuart Campbell, can you put this on PDF so we can print and circulate please!!!!
O/T
Re todays GERS figures. A Massie having another go at the snp.
Anyone know how much our whisky is worth to the UK government? I really don’t see any of the pooling and sharing coming our way.
The latest economic statistics are a disaster for the SNP (not that it matters)
https://archive.today/0rRJb
http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2015/mar/gers-scotland-needs-financial-control
Also Mags has a wee video out, sorry the actual link doesn’t work right now, a bit like Mags herself.
Margaret Curran MP @Margaret_Curran
Today I’m launching my Budget for the East End. Tell me what your priorities are:
@ Taranaich
( ) – We will continuously work for Scottish independence.
(This could also be factored into your 2nd one).
( ) – We will continue to work towards scrapping The House of Lords.
What address do I send the UK Govt leaflet “Scotland’s changing” Back to? Anyone Know or should it just go to
UK Government,
Whitehall,
LONDON
Just reading the bilge on the BBC website concerning GERS
The BBC posted a comment by some moron that Scotland has a higher debt than the UK as a whole
Now I may be thick, but if Scotland is PART of the UK, how on earth can it have a higher debt than the whole of the UK that its part of?
My understanding is that Scottish Government spending is balanced, but part of the block grant goes towards servicing the UK debt
The unionists are making hay regards the price of Oil, but again its my understanding that Scotland , if independent would not need to rely on Oil, but oil is just an ‘added value’
@ Ken 500
Ken can you send us a link to where you dug up the sales figures please?
Ta
🙂
@ Macca73.
Cheers!
😉
They are too busy trying to rubbish the SNP that they have forgotten that this is a General Election, not the Referendum.
Shows the mindset of the Westminster parties.
Ten Unionist Reasons for Voting Labour.
1) Labour’s proposals for new powers to be devolved to Scotland were the weakest of all the parties. We don’t want Scots to have *any* extra power. As our former leader, Johann Lamont, said: “Scots are not genetically programmed to make political decisions”.
So, remember, a vote for Labour will ensure Westminster maintains a firm control of its colony and keep people who are incapable of making decisions out of a postion where they might be able to affect things.
2) During our two year campaign with the Tories, we stood up for Unionists by calling supporters of Independence “nazis” and “a virus”. Remember how we laughed victoriously when David Cameron’s Asda boss friend said he’d put prices up. Remember the high fives and sneers on the 19th Sept?
A vote for Labour will ensure we continue to put the seperatist scum in their place.
(But if you are one of the seperatist scum who voted Yes, then please vote for us. It’s time we all put the past behind us and came together for our common cause, etc).
3) Are you a woman? A vote for us means you won’t have to bother your pretty little head about complicated things like politics. We understand you and we have a pink van that proves it. Now why don’t you take your stupid wee tin hats off and go and fix Paul his cereal?
4) We’ll give you more.
More of everything. Anything. A vote for Labour means more of what you like. One thousand more, to be precise. Nurses? Bingo? Booze and Fags? Whatever the SNP offer, we’ll guarantee you get 1000 more of it. That’s how you know we’re better than the SNP.
5) We tell the truth.
A vote for Labour means honest politics. We voted against Fracking and the SNP didn’t. Honest. We voted against Austerity and the SNP didn’t. Honest. Remember when we voted to give everyone in Scotland their own helicopter, and the SNP blocked us? What more proof do you need? If you don’t believe us, just ask one of the 20,000 Scottish members who were at our conference when Davie Hamilton gave a wonderful speech for International Women’s day.
And remember, the largest party always forms the government.
6) A fair, honest, belief in hard working decent workers solidarity good living wage, etc.
7) Sectarian violence.
A vote for us means we will restoke the embers of sectarian violence at football matches by allowing booze into matches, ensuring both sides are completely trashed when they leave after the final result. Sectarian violence is a fine tradition that Labour plasn to reintroduce to Scotland.
8) More ermine for your money.
A vote for Labour means we’ll keep the House of Lords, that wonderful Unionist institution where your betters talk about things that don’t concern you.
But how will we get such a Unionist policy past the proles?
By simply telling them we’ll abolish the House of Lords. Just like we’ve been doing every election for over a hundred years now. Works every fucking time.
9) Poverty.
The poorest parts of Scotland have always been the Labour controlled parts. A vote for us will ensure it stays that way. But don’t worry, we’ll look after our own MPs and MSPs and cooncillors, through our generous expenses system. Jim Murphy alone has claimed over £1 million. Margaret Curran’s accomodation expenses are more than 3 times more than the accomodation expenses of the entire Scottish government put together.
Some of us quite fancy an extra house in London we can claim for and rent out. So why don’t you just bend over, and put your tick in the Labour box?
10) SNP Bad! BAD!!!!
Shit. Hadn’t planned to write a bloody essay over lunch. I think that was cathartic.
Promises require trust before they are taken seriously by the scottish electorate.
The establishment westmisnter parties have a laughably small amount of that according to all the polling.
This strategy and wee Ed Miliband is hardly going to help ‘scottish’ Labour considering that on the doorsteps when we simply will ask voters “Do you trust Ed Miliband to keep all his promises?”
@ Loverne2Times, Write “Shite” across the face of it in big letters, stick in a plain envelope, don’t afix a stamp and post it to SLAB HQ or, even better, to one of the SLAB MP’s. If they accept it they pay the surcharge (not cheap), if they refuse? it could be a cheque from Tony Blair, instructions from Gordon Brown or a free make-over for Jackie Bailley.
@ Taranaich.
( ) – We will continue to protect and build on the progress we have made with our Scottish Health Service and wherever possible we will vote on matters to help protect the other Health Services within the UK.
( ) – We will vote against any encouragement of “Fracking” at all times.
100,000 houses?
Who is building them? It doesn’t say
When will they built by? It doesn’t say
If it is 20,000 a year for 5 years in the private sector then it isn’t much of a promise.
Dear Stu
Just to say thank you for articulating so well: “fundamentally exploitative … it can never be fair … a “job” which has no entitlement to earnings whatsoever”. For last 8 years I have done a “scraps” “job” with no rights/benefits at all, ever-lessening pay, while bosses reap incredible rewards (Knightsbridge and Bahamas).
Bugger (the Panda)
Just in case Ken is off onto the next thread, here’s where I saw the figures yesterday
http://www.cqnmagazine.com/decline-fall-for-the-record/
ClanDonald wrote:
“Postie put two of each leaflet through my door. What a cheek. Although hopefully that might mean someone else didn’t get one at all…Anyone got a free post address where I can send them back to?”
No, but failing that you could always do what i do.
Tear them up into small pieces and drop them back into a RM box.
🙂
__________
@ Macca73.
I thought so (re: 100K/200k) that’s why i wanted a source.
Thanks for the clarification.
“Rev Stuart Campbell, can you put this on PDF so we can print and circulate please!!!!”
You’ve seen that there’s a “PDF” button at the bottom of every post, right? 😉
@ Bill McLean (1.30pm).
You could always send it to Sally Carbuncle, (A.Carmichael).
He’s London’s Scottish gofer who is behind the promotion of it.
@ Nana
Massie, truth and context, never come together intentionally. We know why Mr Massie bangs his particular drum, its who and what he is, what he represents.
The same uncomfortable truths appear to escape his notice however, that his system of government, his unionist parties and their agendas ran up 1.5tr in debt and smashed an economy, produced one of the widest rich poor gaps in the western developed world and actively set about making that gap wider. That his system and preferred politicians live for graft, naked theft from the public purse, cover up their own appalling crimes and have a hankering for the high life at everyone’s expense but their own. But hey, its his column, he can say what he likes when it comes to making ends meet.
Facts are chiels that winna ding right enough for Mr Massie.
“In other news I’ve seen today that the Daily Record’s sales have dipped below 100,000”
You may be confused. This year it’s fallen below 200,000 for the first time, not 100,000.
“Wot, not GERS coverage? Why’s that then?”
What is it that you imagine the story to be?
Someone working full time, earning the minimum wage & living alone with no dependents will be in an average rented house with no car & have barely enough money left over at the end of each month for savings, a mortgage or a even a holiday in Greenock.
Assuming he/she works full time for 37.5 hours per week & receives the statutory 5.6 weeks’ holiday per year (28 days), annual income BEFORE deductions at the minimum wage rate, is 37.5 hrs x £8 x 52 weeks = £15,600 per year. The income tax payable is (£15,600 – £10,000) x 20% = £1,120 leaving £14,480.
Class 1 National Insurance contributions is rated at 12% which means a further reduction of £917. Net income after working on minimum wage is £15,600 – £1,120 – £917 = £13,563 per year or £1,130 per month or £261 per week. The effective tax rate for a single person with no dependents on minimum wage is therefore 13.1%, slightly more than eBay or Amazon.
The average rent in Scotland is about £539 per month or 48% of monthly net minimum wage. (Source – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-30591580). Forget getting a mortgage because one could borrow no more than £70,000 at 5% over 25 years. That costs around £410 per month but the average house price in Scotland is £160,000 (Source – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-27037763) so one would have to have at least £90,000 in cash for a deposit. Unless their rich auntie croaked it or they won the lottery, getting an average house then is impossible.
The average council tax rate in Scotland is £1,094 per year or £91 per month. (Source – http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/counciltax.html). So after taxes, national insurance, an average rent & an average community charge, one would have exactly £500 left to pay for electricity/gas/oil/coal, telephone/internet, home insurance, food, work travel expenses etc.
The average home fuel bill in Scotland is £112 a month, the highest in Britain by the way (Source – http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/u/scottish-households-have-highest-energy-costs-in-uk.1393854906). The poorest 20% of non-retired single adult households (those with less than £256 a week before tax) spend £22.30 a week on food and non-alcoholic drink, according to the 2012 Family Spending Survey from the Office for National Statistics. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22065978). So our minimum wage worker will likely spend around £97 per month on food. That leaves us with £403.
The average annual usage of electricity in Scotland is 3,200 kWh (Source – http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/ourprices/) which costs around £553 or £46 per month. We’re now left with £357. We still haven’t got a telephone or internet service which the minimum wage worker is going to need to get a job in the first place. That could cost around £30 to £50 per month including line rental. Now we’re down to £307 and there’s still the cost of getting to/from work.
Excluding cars, the average distance travelled by Scots every year is around 405 miles by local bus as the main mode for the journey, 483 miles by surface rail, 155 miles by foot, 580 miles by other public transport and 35 miles by bicycle. (Source – http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/statistics/statistical-trends/personal-travel.)
Assuming no car use, the minimum wage worker will pay for travel over a distance of some 405 + 483 + 580 = 1,468 miles per year or 122 miles per month. Mixed travel costs are tough to figure out so we’ll assume 18 pence per mile which arrives at a monthly commute cost of around £22. (Source – http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-statistics).
The average cost of living & working in Scotland then is around £15,500 – £285 = £15,215 per year which leaves our minimum wage worker just £285 of disposable income per month. It’s nowhere near enough to save up for a down payment on a cheap house & it would take at least two years just to save up a 6 month emergency fund. And the 2nd hand ten year old car is going to have to wait another year or two after that.
Meanwhile, there will be no paid holidays & one must keep one’s fingers crossed that there are no sudden emergencies or reduction in income due to poor health. Heck, there’s barely enough left over to pay to receive propaganda from the BBC.
So, it is indeed possible to get by on the minimum wage but it’s not easy & fraught with risks. And with almost no disposable income left, it’s a lifestyle that one wouldn’t wish on anyone, not even Malcolm Rifkind.
Ten Reasons summed up in just two:
http://www.scottcreighton.co.uk/GE2015/two-reasons-lab.png
“You didn’t comment on the bit about raising paternity pay by £100 a week ?”
Didnt spot it…
They should have gone with THAT as the headline.
Raising Paternity pay is actually a good policy.
Wot, not GERS coverage? Why’s that then?
Only story there is that there are those desperate for any scrap of bad news relating to Scotland no matter how fleeting. The worse it is the happier they are.
Someone like yourself for example would undoubtedly be consumed in a spasm of self loving if it were to be announced that everyone in Scotland had been wiped out by Ebola.
Ta all the same but we don’t need your faux concern 🙂
Postie brought our junk mail the other day; did as always do with said mail and put it straight into the recycling box.
Guilt-ridden now though. Should I have left it on the kitchen table for the other voters in the house? Nah, no sensible person could be taken in by it could they?
Instead I’ll print off Robin McAlpine’s recent article, or Stu’s analysis above, and leave that around. Much better.
Labour – helping us all meet our recycling targets; or lining cat litter trays across Scotland.
At least the pish they are printing(in Essex by the way,as we dont have any printing firms in Scotland)is costing them lots of money to post out.
I have not yet had one canvasser or hand delived leaflet in my area yet,except SNP of course.
I sent my copy back to them,forgot stamp,and did the same to that HM Government leaflet too!
@Macart
Ach I know, Massie just annoys me much like the rest of the unionist ‘journalists’
These guys know the truth but they are happy to spread mistruth. Nasty people
What a lot of nonsense, But then look who is in charge of the Labour campaign. 10 points of madness and lies.
Labour are pretty desperate and disrespectful to their electorate…..all 100 of them.
I have been waiting patiently for weeks now and still no sign of any labour fliers – Kilwinning Ayrshire – Katy where are you ? or have we no Labour people on the ground.
Oops just heard they are all off their heads in the Saltcoats Labour Club.
My apologies they have obviously better things to do than “doorstep” on cold wet days.
10 good reason to vote labour!
1. I am a shallow idiot!
2. My father voted labour (he doesn’t now, he votes SNP)!
3. I dislike people who are principled, successful and who don’t have a chip on their shoulder
Ach, three’s enough anyway!
Iain McGray
I’ve been ripping up their leaflets and sending them too:
Scottish Labour Membership,
Freepost GW4863,
290 Bath Street,
Glasgow,
G2 4RE
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
11 March, 2015 at 1:09 pm
Can you scan/photograph that for us?
How do I send it to you? Couldn’t see an attach function on your contacts page.
Grouse Beater says:
11 March, 2015 at 11:54 am
I fucking love trailing dots…
Good man. In literature it’s called a pregnant pause.
Question is, is they’r Maternity leave wie trailing dots,how much is Murphy offering.
@ Nana
I don’t suppose they get paid to be nice Nana, but rest assured they do get paid.
Live in lanarkshire? Check your voter registration here:-
Tel 0800 030 4333
Email ero@lanarkshire-vjb.gov.uk
web: http://www.lanarkshire-vjb.gov.uk
The Electoral Registration Officer for Lanarkshire
is Gary Bennett
Just received my ‘Scotland’s Changing’ leaflet through the door, wrapped neatly within the Labour election propaganda…
It’s Royal Mail that’s delivering this rubbish not Labour. They’re just spending a fortune – all funds of course coming from London.
On the subject of job-creating powers, you will recall Alex Salmond asking Alistair Darling during the second TV debate “Which job creating powers are we getting should there be a no vote?” Have a guess what the answer was. 😉
I can remember when Labour did a pretty good job
of telling everyone what the Tories were up to.
They don’t do that anymore – ‘cos Labour are doing the same things.
Labour – once useful for something, now good for nothing.
This printed ordure dropped through my letterbox a few days ago. However, as I had recently restocked on real toilet paper, I immediately consigned it to the recycle bin. I just hope it doesn’t pollute the other rubbish in the bin.
I couldn’t afford to take two weeks paternity leave. I had to use annual leave.
What’s the use in doubling something that was already a waste of time for most folk?
I also received the leaflets today. I’ve annotated them (and am pleased to see that what I wrote is very similar to, though shorter than, the deconstruction above) and am about to send them back –
The Labour one will go to the address on the leaflet.
The Government one is heading for the Liberal Democrats, since they are allegedly part of HMG for another 3 weeks or so.
And as for the rest of the list …
,i.Loveme2times says:
11 March, 2015 at 12:46 pm
Is there any way of returning the Labour leaflet that arrives so that the Labour party have to pay for it’s return??
I think something similar was mentioned during the referendum.
I don’t want or need to read this pish, it’s akin to cold calling really.
You could send it to your North British Labour local office sans stamp but there’s no garantee that they would collect and pay for it (it cost £1 on top of normal postage)
I think for normal Freepost service the organisation pays an up front flat fee, not a per item returned charge.
The really expensive way (time and money) is to ask for further detailed info from your local SLABBERS as you are interested in what they have on offer. Use a fake address or you will be lovebombed!
I don’t seem to be on Labour’s delivery list :O
I have received SNP leaflets so far and that is it.
Oh and the official Government propaganda leaflet.
Some differing figures re Daily Record sales on those links. I jotted down the figures released in January relating to Dec 2013 and Dec 2014. The sales dropped from 216,088 to 192,922. Sunday Mail down from 246,719 to 212,972. Very similar to the figures quoted in the CQN article above.
If you’re going to be sniffy about the illiteracy of ‘frozen’, you ought to be a bit more careful about ‘exponentially’:
‘….a number the SNP has increased exponentially in government….’ means that the rate of building of houses increased in proportion to the number already built. Is that so?
AC
Shouldn’t you be preparing your case?
Just read that a councillor from Hadley in Suffolk, Brian Riley, is refusing to step down even though he is moving to the USA. He insists he can do the job from 4000 miles away. He cannot be forced to resign because legally he only needs to attend one meeting every 6 months to collect his £10,000 pa allowance. There is also a Devon councillor, Eve Barisic, who lives in France. She also refused to step down in February. What do they have in common, apart from brass necks? They are both Con_servatives.
As it’s a Westminster election, these must all be issue Labour feel appropriate to be controlled from there.
Nana Smith says:
O/T
Re todays GERS figures. A Massie having another go at the snp.
Anyone know how much our whisky is worth to the UK government? I really don’t see any of the pooling and sharing coming our way.
The latest economic statistics are a disaster for the SNP (not that it matters)
Last years figures still show that Scotland does better than most areas of the UK outside London.
What they prove is that Scotland needs far more powers to compete effectively with London.
It is rather amusing to see Tories rubbing their hands with glee claiming that Scotland is subsidised.
So much for Tory principles of self-reliance and responsibility.
They would rather that Scotland sponged of London, rather than competed with London.
Regarding Whisky, there was a report previously that showed how a bottle tax of 50p could raise £500 million for Scotland, instead of most of the value leaving the country.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20931496
And of course, they HAVE to make Scotch whisky in Scotland.
re Housebuilding in Scotland – the stats are here
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuildSummary showing that for the last few years under SNP at Holyrood around 15000 new houses have been built in Scotland around a third of those ‘social housing’
Note – It is not ‘the government’ that builds houses it is private developers , local authorities and housing associations, often in partnership and subject to local planning regulations, and helped by any funding streams which are available at the time – not just from local and national government sources but also from banking sector /private finance etc .
Extract from Scot Govt website below which suggests that 100000 new houses over a 5 year term was ‘normal’ if not on the low side till the recession started to hit( and Labour were in charge) in the mid noughties.
15,000 per year is the current build rate under the SNP and rising…
Whether these houses will be affordable for those who need them most in Scotland, is the big question that all parties must be specific about……
the current 1000 new Council houses per year is a good start but clearly not enough to meet current demand.
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild
New House Building in Scotland
Historic trends in new build showed peaks in the early 1950s and late 1960s resulting primarily from programmes of post-war reconstruction and slum clearances.
From a high point of about 41,000-43,000 completions a year, mainly in the public sector, the level of new build fell during the early 80s to under 20,000 completions per year.
Since then, there was an overall upward trend which peaked in the year to end September 2005 at 25,702 completions. This trend reversed with completions falling to 14,535 in the year to end September 2013. The figure for the year to end September 2014 was up by 6% at 15,436; 40% below the peak in 2004-05.
The number of starts increased by 9% to 15,421 in the latest year (to 30 September 2014).
There were 1,123 new council houses started in the latest year (to 30 September 2014) and 954 were completed. More up to date figures for social housing to December 2014 are available from the web tables available below.
Quarterly new build figures are subject to routine revisions as more complete information becomes available. These revisions are made when the next quarter’s data is published.
Why would anyone with a functioning brain vote Labour?
Another reason to not believe them about the Fracking Ban is Labour’s welsh branch in Government down here in Wales are having trouble imposing their fracking moratorium because they are seen as a joke by the Fracking Companies
http://dailywales.net/2015/03/11/welsh-labours-toothless-fracking-ban-fails-to-stop-drilling-plans/
I haven’t seen any activity or leaflets from Labour but in Moore’s soon to be ex constituency I don’t think they are bothering much. I think the stats were somewhere less than 1%. Busy delivering Vote for Calum Kerr SNP leaflets following behind John Lamont’s geriatric helpers.
On behalf of the Green Party, I would like to warn Scotland that the burning of fossil fuels has recently risen by 50%.
For the sake of the Nation, stop burning these “policy”letters from the Westminster parties.
They are ideal for your compost Heep as they will naturally degrade with the rest of the shite in there. lol
Jeremy Clarkston, Violent Racist Bully and true blue Tory
gets 300,000 signatures on reinstatement petition, and
Bias by the BBC towards Scotland, a Whole Nation, only
86,090?
100,000 names gets us a public inquiry!
Please sign the petition below!
This would really put more momentum our way and perhaps tone down
the racist ranting on the run up to the election.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/independent-enquiry-into-bbc-bias-regards-scottish-independence-referendum
” It can never be fair in principle to have a “job” which has no entitlement to earnings whatsoever.”
And yet thats exactly what happens on many offshore standby ships. As always the Merchant Navy is a hidden industy – but more of that later.
As for job creating powers we need only tweak minimum manning requirements via flag state or port state controls and voila more jobs. Westminster has in its power through the IMO do such things but chooses to do nowt.
Pity the SG doesn’ have such powers!
On balance why do Calmac use an offshore company for employees: saves the SG a pound or two eh?
This leaflet was popped through the door yesterday….
Made a great paper airplane for the kids!
She’s full of guff. Trying to act coy about politics. If the BBC waste their money on presenters who ask questions and don’t like the answer should they be in the job.
Kay with an E knows fine well Jim Murphy and Dugdale are liars, does that make her one as well?
Sorry wrong thread for last post. Meant to stick it in Kay with an E’s thread
Spock could have sorted this out if Scotty had nae been too tight with all they di-lithium crystals. Bring back Spock tha nextagainday an gonnae nae say ah did nae warn yae pal