Mister Twenty-Four Seven
We had a little fun last night at the expense of Ian Murray, the sole surviving Scottish Labour MP, who’d sent his constituents a list of his achievements in office that was actually a blank sheet of paper. And in fairness, he was extremely quick off the mark in response, producing a video tweet within four hours.
And it seems that he’s actually been keeping VERY busy.
The video made a number of startling claims:
That seems like a lot, to put it mildly. Since the general election of 7 May 2015 just 505 working days have passed, or 722 if you include weekends and bank holidays.
So if we give the hard-working Edinburgh South MP weekends and holidays off, that means he turned up in person at the homes of constituents almost 20 times a day. If we allow an absolute minimum of 15 minutes each, including travelling time each way, that’s five hours a day gone just on home visits.
But there’s more. In a previous tweet earlier this month, Murray had outlined some of his other daily tasks:
700 a day? Blimey, that’s impressive. Even if you could somehow read every email, compose and type a considered and meaningful reply in 60 seconds, that’d take you over 11 and a half hours every day. Coupled with the home visits that’s 16.5 hours a day just on emails and home visits. And he hasn’t even gone to Parliament yet!
A post on his website reveals that he in fact spends around 40 hours a week working at Westminster (in the interests of fairness we’ve excluded time he says he spends answering emails while he’s there, so that we’re not counting it twice). Over the four days he’s in London, that’s an average of ten hours a day.
Particularly alert readers will have noted that that’s 26.5 hours a day spent solely on work, with no time alloted for eating or sleeping, let alone squeezing in any of his 142 constituency advice sessions every year. (1000 since 2010. Again in the interests of fairness, we’ll assume those all happen on weekends, when he’s back in Edinburgh.)
We’d be the first to admit that it’s a punishing schedule. Voters of Edinburgh South might feel that it was only fair to give him a bit of a rest, starting next month.
Impressive, did my realise be he was so hard working.
Some how I think he has miscalculated.
Not sure but think he may be in panic more, and wonder where the truth is?
Maybe Mr Murray was in a hurry and rushed around all the visits he made, he arrives at the door, hello my name is Ian Murray, goodbye, nice of you to open the door, must dash
Ahhhhhhh you should never hurry a murray
Murray mints, Murray mints, to good to hurry mints, heh heh heh
No wonder, then, that he won’t give the Rev Stu or Wingers, “The time of day”.
“Give him a bit of a rest” sounds like a splendid idea to me, he can then write fiction in his own time.
There are a couple of others who could join him.
Stu, your on a roll here and not a Mortons crispy and im loving every minute of it. Hes a lying toad with more faces than the town clock. I agree , he needs a holiday. Unpaid of course.
Looking forward to his reply on that analysis. We may just get the back of a constituency letter of course!
Are all unionist MPs fantasists and liars, or only the ones still standing?
Pee breaks?
No wonder he abstains so much he just hasn’t got the time to vote
Jings!
Andy Kerr’s labour calculator, inherited by Bailie , must have been passed on now to Ian Murray.
Its the multiply button that’s stuck. 🙂
PS
J Freeman on Scottish Social Security System excellent news.
He should employ some staff to do things like answer emails on his behalf and often if you turn up to see your MP a party functionary will be filling in, in Scotland maybe a list MSP instead.
I suggest Mr Murray employ some staff, learn to delegate and ask colleagues how they manage their workload.
One wonders how he managed when he was shadow Scottish secretary. Maybe he resigned out of sheer exhaustion instead of trying undermine the popularly elected leader.
Actually Rev, shouldn’t the article be called “Mister 26/9”
A workaholic certainly and making a nice change from booze hounds like Lord Foulkes.
A figment of his imagination.
He wont have time to bitch about anybody sticking Yes stickers to his office door this time then.
The bit about offering every single household a home visit is indeed a startling claim since I know one household in his constituency that didn’t get such an offer but then it is in a less salubrious part of it. Lets just say it isn’t Marchmont with a view of the Meadows.
You forgot to add in his time campaigning against Independence in his Union Jack suit.
Presumably we need to exclude from his availability to carry out those home visits each and every day he spent twiddling his thumbs at Westminster; and the time spent in his local surgeries; Labour Party conferences. Oh the list could go on for such a busy pillar of society.
However no doubt his expense claims to IPSA will bear out all the travel costs involved in those meetings.
I really found that hilarious, does Murray really expect ordinary people to swallow that complete load of codswallop that he spouts.
Maybe he’s been moonlighting as a postie!
A legend in his own mind…
No doubt he exaggerates. But I have contacted him (as my constituency MP) about Brexit (which he voted against) and TTIP (which seems to have died a death) and received personal replies, often detailed.
Fairness to the man, he’s an excellent constituency MP. He lives locally and will often attend and support local events and campaigns.
Macart says:
28 April, 2017 at 10:23 am
Pee breaks
He won’t need toilet breaks as he has not allocated time for eating and drinking!
But seriously, how can his office staff not have noticed the blank side when they were folding the sheets and stuffing them into envelopes. Did no-one bother to proof read them?
Maybe one of his constituents should put a YES sticker on the blank side and send it back to him. Then he can reclaim the moral high ground as the victim of an SNPbaad terrorist attack.
Numptie!
Labour still heavily relying on the gullible and stupid while the Tories rely on the uninformed and misinformed.
Which only proves there are far too many of these people in the electorate.
Fairness to the man, he’s an excellent constituency MP. He lives locally and will often attend and support local events and campaigns.”
Morningside is lets say a lets says, incongruous constituency, for a socialist worker like Ian though.
What are his constituents main issues and problems, the ever rising costs of private school fees in Edinburgh, why is there not a Waitrose even closer to his constituents, why are the poor always with us, why cant BBC Scotland be just a little less SNP biased, why hasn’t Edinburgh local gel Laura Kuenssberg been made a Dame yet…
[…] Wings Over Scotland Mister Twenty-Four Seven We had a little fun last night at the expense of Ian Murray, the sole surviving […]
@sunniva
He doesn’t appear to be the only one exaggerating.
The man is deliberately bare face lying to his own constituents not exaggerating.
Showing his face at public events is not what makes a good MP its the ability to take his constituency concerns to Parliament and have them dealt with.
Do you think his voice is heard in Labour above the other 231 voices down South?
I don’t.
He’s also told people a million times not to exaggerate… (sorry!)
Does he drive a Delorian Car like in the Back
To the Future Movie?
He may work hard? But yet again he is a
Proven liar about the hours he puts in.
It would take great effort to convince Scots that
SNP, Corbyn, are bad, and that we are better
Off being an English colony were our votes
Count for nothing.
Please let this liar go off for a 5 year holiday!
Actually to be fair here (I find it hard to believe I’m doing this) he actually said “I’ve offered every single household a home visit”
I here and now offer a home visit every household in his constituency – and the one next door too.
That was easy…
(Hardly worth boasting about though.)
Now to set my emailers to autoreply message…
“Home visits” clapping someone’s door is a home visit! Maybe he should help the home carers work out a time schedule as he manages to fit so much into a single day . Or he used Jackie Baillie’s abacus for working out Or he is doing what Slab do best Lie( a distortion of his truth). One thing we know he saves time on is toilet breaks , cause he talks so much shite he doesn’t need to go.
Or maybe leafletting in election campaigns counts as a ‘home visit’…
Clearly using the Jackie Bailie abacus to do the sums.
2 + 1 = 21
Liam and he also said he has done 10,000 house visits since 2015, that is the figure the Rev based his calculations on.
He seems to like things to be round, y’know, like round numbers – 1000, 10000, 11000, 15000, 700 emails – and then, at the end of the video, “… working for you all year round. Oh yes, and let’s not forget the pies (couldn’t resist).
The chutzpah shown up here is astonishing.
As he was winding up his random number generator, didn’t it even cross his mind that someone 😉 would give it even the tiniest bit of scrutiny ?
Does he wear blue Long Johns and a Red Cape (-:
OT, but I’m kinda curios how long Natalie McGarry and Michelle Thomson have been blighted by the prospect of criminal investigation without being either charged or exonerated. Quite clearly the issue has had a detrimental impact on their careers, and yet the sword of Damocles still hangs over them.
Contrast this with dozens of Tory MP’s in similar circumstances, facing the prospect of criminal investigation but ebullient about the whole thing, and brazen enough to present themselves for re-election in a new General Election.
Why is justice so slow in these circumstances? Isn’t there the prospect of an injunction pending the result of the criminal investigation?
@Lenny Hartley – true.
How many ‘households’ are there in his constituency anyway?
Looks like he’s got a case against the westminster government, his hourly rate of pay must be thrupence
Loved this reply fromTgd to Murray’s tweet about visiting 10,000 homes in 2 years.
Nae luck. I havent visited my own home 10,000 times in 2 years. How did you manage that?
Scottish humour at it’s best.
The man doth protest too much, methinks. Surely (don’t call me Surely), it would have been easier to go ‘oops’ and then publish the list of outstanding achievements omitted from the backside, rear-side, reverse-side, arse-side of the original communication. But, no, this is not done. Does it exist? Maybe, perchance, the squire wot wrote it, wrote it in blank verse, forsooth.
Meanwhile, O/T perhaps, the news that liar-Carmichael who said he would not be standing at the next general election has, surprise, surprise, said he is standing at the next general election doesn’t seem to have generated much interest even amongst the voles of Orkney.
He must have been to the ‘Baillie’ school when he learnt hard sums.
K’inell!
Makes our SNP MPs even MORE impressive given that they are present in WM for far longer than any other party (including Murray’s) and take part in more debates than any other party.
Mind boggles.
I once contacted my local Labour MSP (no more) who initially seemed interested in the issue I raised. But because I didn’t want to appear in a photo shoot for the local paper, I just wanted the issue addressed, he seemed to immediately lose interest. Never heard from him again.
He’s offered the house visits. Doesn’t actually mean that he’s done any.
John
Impressive considering he also manages to fit in visits to pop concerts wearing garish clothes. I’m assuming he has a PA to buy his haute couture items as there aren’t enough hours in the day to fit in shopping.
I stay in Mr.Murray’s constituency. He’s never visited me. He did, however, send the ‘no achievements’ letter to my house. It was addressed to me and my wife, who is a German national and ineligible vote for him.
The only place I’ve ever seen him is propping up the bar in unionist stronghold Bennett’s.
O/T
Labour is not a threat. How about a national poster campaign with a old disabled guy saying
“They took my motability buggy from me. Is that the one Ruth Davidson has?”
I much preferred the cheeky wee coquettish grin on his previous communique.
Back to the real glaikit vacant Ian Murray persona for this rush job communique I see.
Ian Murray is Superman.
Who knew?
This seems like an inhuman amount of hours to work, under any human rights legislation he shouldn’t have to be put under such pressure
Isn’t he a member of a “Union” who could help him receive his entitlements to rest
Or is it just up to us decent SNP types to enforce rest upon him for his own good
Vote SNP and let’s give overworked Iain Murray some time off
Ian Murray’s favourite Beatles hit – Eight Days a Week.
Like most constituencies, Edinburgh South contains poor areas, like the Inch, Gilmerton, Oxgangs, as well as better off areas. Even in the better off areas there is mixed housing. The poorer areas are more densely populated. Ian has a strong vote there as well as amongst teachers and nurses and other public sector workers living in better off areas. I’ve even seen Labour Party posters on windows in £1 million villas. Not everybody amongst the better off is without a social conscience. And very lately, yes, there does seem to be a phenomenon of Tory voters in Edinburgh South switching tactically to Labour as an anti-SNP and pro-dependence vote. The seat is a three way marginal. The wider pattern has been the decline of the LDs. They have dwindled to fourth place. Twenty years ago the SNP was in fourth place. Neil Hay (SNP) came second in 2015 after a smear campaign over a tweet he did three years before. The bad news for Ian is that the tactical Tory voters who supported him last time will probably swing behind their preferred candidate now, as they are confident of a Tory revival. Which believe me, is genuine and is happening in Edinburgh South. At the same time the Greens have a developing presence and the SNP candidate might find some of their vote going their way. In short there is a good chance the Tories will get in. On the other hand, 78% voted Remain: in parts of Morningside it was as high as 90%.
I sure hope the SNP come out with a good strong campaign for the GE.
Labour haven’t really got much to campaign about! They’re bu99ered whatever they do.
The Tories have been campaigning against the SNP for a couple of years now! They have made some inroads, but mainly by picking up Labour votes.
We need to have good solid loud campaign and get a result better than polls are predicting.
@me at 12:24
Polls don’t predict. I mustn’t fall into that trap!
Just when you think the BBC cannot stoop any lower, they invite some cuntbag from Breitbart to defend the rape clause….!!
And guess what…it is all the fault of the SNP!!
At NO POINT did Jo Coburn intervene to state that the rape clause is hated by EVERYONE…fucking ragin’!!
They better hurry up and build they Scottish Film studios and the Remaking of the Scottish Pinocchio would be a smash hit.
John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, has responded to the news that UK growth slowed to 0.3% the last quarter: “This General Election is a choice between a Labour Party who will stand up for the many and a Tory Party which only looks after the privileged few.”
Apart from the occasional financial crash that is still simmering away? No doubt the tories will make that one look like just a warm up.
Why does Ian remind me of a big pile of coo shit?
Just back from foreign lands really nice people though they think we are all total idiots.
I did explain to them that was the brits and that we Scots agree they are total idiots,had one Spanish guy who was a little confused seemed to think Scotland was already an independent nation,i told him we are working on it and we will be soon but trying to free yourself from a country of evil dictators is not an easy task and that we will need all our European friends to help us.
o/t
I see there has been a terrorist attack, never heard a word about it until i read WGD,Islamic terror? no,Republican terror? no,British terror? yes.
I hope the police do a good job and catch these terrorists and lock them up for a very long time and which ever group they belong placed on the terrorist watch list and their leaders prosecuted for preaching hate.
That is how it works unless of course that is only for Islamic terrorists and Brit terrorist are exempt from UK terrorist law.
Shame on you MSM if this was the other way around you would be in full screeching mode,but your silence makes you complicit in this act of terrorism and will not be forgotten.
Sunniva says: at 12:17 pm
Interesting analysis but Oxgangs is in Joanna Cherry’s patch.
Don’t think Greens will stand but you never know and just announced Tory candidate is currently contested a Council Ward which is bit of a cheek but if the Tory vote returns home the SNP with a strong candidate can come through the middle.
Sunniva says:
Not everybody amongst the better off is without a social conscience.
You mean the rich but Nice sales pitch. He won because tory yoon culture is desperate to stop Scottish indy, especially in places like Morningside. Fair enough. Its kept our Ian in a job for a couple of long incredibly hard working years, in Morningside.
This is what’s driving the apparent tory in Scotland revival now and its probably why he’s going to lose. Why vote SLab if the tory party is the saviour of the UKOK zone?
Unless ofcourse rich tories in Scotland haven’t bought the relentless BBC Scotland led, Ruth D’s a goddess and her all new and exciting tories are comeback kids of the Scotland region stuff.
The rich don’t get rich and stay rich, for being suckas Sunniva.
oops i should add that i was talking about a certain Labour MP and not the Ian that posted above my last post.
Thought i should make that clear to avoid any unfortunate misunderstandings hehe.
Big pile of steaming rancid manure Murray.
@ Free Scotland Its been a hard days night & ( he’s been working like the Dog he is ).
btw Rev there’s nae mention of his time spent supporting his team Hearts & hobnobing in the directors suite.
It seems the dodgy bar graphs scam is more widespread than we thought….
Here is another NINE….
link to archive.is
Interesting overview, Sunniva. I note that Steph Smith, who is also running for the Council in Liberton, has been selected by the Tories for Edinburgh South. Whilst some Tories might be emboldened by recent polling to back her, I have a feeling she may not be well-known enough to create a three-way.
Is Doug Thomson the likely candidate for the SNP?
link to caltonjock.com
Hearing rumour that a third package was delivered to the SNPs Edinburgh HQ.
Harmless or not, this is a whole new level of intimidation from unionist support.
Still, better together eh?
A man who never has enough time for the things he wants to do
I can’t see anything on the news about those mysterious packages sent to SNP politicians over the last few days. I would have thought it would be the headline on the BBC.
@joannie
Had to do a bit of looking under ‘what the Scottish papers say’ on the BBC site.
Third package is a campaign of intimidation by anyone’s standards IMV. That it isn’t wall to wall on broadcast TV is a black shame on the media.
But one egg and a sticker…
Who respects democracy
Well I’ll tell you who doesn’t, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party that’s who
Despite my windows being festooned with SNP paraphernalia front and back both of these parties completely ignore my choice to reject them and stick their pamphlets through my door anyway
What’s next, a suspicious package or is that left to the Tory branch of the Unionist party to carry out
. I would have thought it would be the headline on the BBC.
Its terrorism, in Scotland, hard core.
Its appalling but BBC coverage of it all, playing it down to not much, shows how their pro tory and UK propaganda flips over at Carlisle. It would be massive ofcourse if the tories and SLab were on the receiving end. Look at the huge BBC news stuff on the arrest of a mentally ill man with a bag of knives in Whitehall today.
If he’s married, then I am seriously impressed. I can’t get working on my old classic car for two hours without the ” are you going to be doing that all day ?” quip from the other half.
I hear he has been requested to give running coaching to Laura Muir. We should put him down to challenge the Brownlee brothers in the triathlon
John you are obviously not “an alert reader”
Re Cooncil elections received a Labour leaflet today, delivered by somebody who I didn’t recognise and therefore highly likely not a resident of Arran, it’s pretty bad for them if no local residents , used to be a pretty active Labour Party here, my auld man was a founding member. Anyway I digress the leaflet States “despite both of Arran’s SNP councillors sitting on their Cabinet, the previous Snp Administration forced through the closure of Arran’s public toilets.” And goes on to say that she will work with the community to reopen one in Brodick
North Ayrshire has a Labour Run minority Adminstration, Labour took control several months ago, the Toilets closed this month. although the Previous SNP minority Administration did initially make the closure decision, Labour had several months to reverse that decision and did not.
They are a bunch of lying scumbags.
Its just astonishing that packages claiming to contain anthrax can be delivered to UK politicians and the BBC says virtually nothing about it.
Wee Ginger Dug has a good piece about this today…
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
It’s on the front page of the daily stranger, with the headline triple terror attack on the SNP.
Packages sent earlier this week to John Nicolson, Angus Council and SNP HQ in Edinburgh.
All MPs employ staff to deal with emails, and indeed home vists…
Murray could easily have said ‘I and my staff…’
But why bother when you can claim all the credit for yourself?
I’m sure it motivates your helpers…
Non reporting of terrorist mailers is nae news , we hiv nae any actual furriners , we chist hiv home grown variety of urban terrorists as long as they’re paying the postage no laws being broken.
He’s talking manure. At the height of the Indy Ref Campaign as Convener of my local SNP Branch I was receiving 150 to 200 emails per day and I’ll be perfectly frank many only got a very cursory look and many a reply was just a very curt ‘Ta’. Mind you if you have a band of helpers answering your emails for you it might be possible but certainly not an honest claim. He’s just making himself look silly and hoping his Constituents follow Jackie Bailie’s ‘An Idiots Guide SLAB Arithmetic & Economics’.
Auld Rock
Btw dont look squinty when passing any royal mail post boxes , it might take offence.
Link broken will now work
link to google.co.uk
I get about 250 emails a day. I reply to about 20. I feel horribly guilty about this, but it is impractical to do more and still write, research and campaign. Assuming it takes 5 minutes on average to read an email and reply to it (presumably some of them require him to actually do something before replying) then my fellow clansman spends over 50 hours a day just replying to emails. That is really impressive indeed, given that he is out visiting consituents’ homes at the same time. But he is so talented, perhaps he has invented a tardis?
Bennet’s [aka wee Bennet’s] is not a Unionist stronghold. That’s the Canny Man across the street. I shall be there with the dug tonight. I am there every week, never seen Murray once. Have seem Jim Eadie, Cllr Sandy Howat, Kenny MacAskill, and there are always 2 or 3 SNP branch members there
He’s lying. I emailed him during the whole “stickergate” affair to ask him why he thought his use of language was acceptable and that as a constituent of his I was embarrassed and angered. No answer.
He also saw fit to attempt to bully one of our female representatives at our local polling station on referendum day. Not a nice man.
O/T
Why does this make me incredibly sad?
What an abuse of learning and knowledge – where is the humanity in this?
link to nationalinterest.org
I’m going into the garden to listen to the birdsong just in case there comes a time when it isn’t there anymore.
Completely off topic, but the Andy Wightman crowdfunding request is up and running. Google “Andy Wightman crowdfunding”. A worthy cause if ever there was one.
Did I miss this in the UK National press on Tuesday, or was it reported on Wednesday?Maybe I missed it on thursday in the Scottish press -at least???
Sir Michael Idiot Fallon said:
“In the most extreme circumstances, we’ve made it very clear that you can’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons (Trident) as a first strike,” Fallon told BBC Radio 4’s Today program, according to The Independent.
Russia’s response:
A senior Russian politician responded aggressively Monday to comments by the U.K.’s defense minister suggesting pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons against Russia is an option for London, claiming the U.K. would be completely annihilated by Russia’s nukes in response.
link to newsweek.com
He sure knows how to draw attention to himself that Ian Murray and for all the wrong reasons. Hopefully his constituents have him sussed out by now.
Latest ~ SCANDAL in East Ren! (on the front cover and page 13)
link to glasgowsouthandeastwoodextra.co.uk
The magnificent seven (21/02/17)
link to glasgowsouthandeastwoodextra.co.uk
Have a fine Friday folks, especially Edinburgh South.
Another gift from the Tories – something we can all look forward to if we don’t escape from the “Union” – they’ve just passed a law preventing English councils from setting up bus services i.e. only private bus companies allowed.
Apparently EVEL applied so only Labour and Libdem and the Green from English constituencies [NI and Wales excluded too, not only Scotland]could oppose it. [info from change.org as I signed their petition to oppose the law.]
Why for heavens sake would the Tories want to introduce such a law? What else will they decide that local authorities can’t do – schools? Oh no, they’ve already done that one.
Liam
‘Actually to be fair here (I find it hard to believe I’m doing this) he actually said “I’ve offered every single household a home visit”,
I saw Lenny help you out with the fact that he claims to have ‘actually’ visited 10,000 households since GE15. You replied ‘true’ then enquired into how many households in his constituency? Rev by producing this exact point has obviously calculated that number too else this article and it’s point wouldn’t make the least sense?
But it does make sense Liam. Ian Murray is a total liar. There is no way to rationalise his statements as anything other than ‘exaggerated’ at the very least to downright ‘lying through his teeth’ at the very most. Given this article’s simple arithmetical impossibility that he has visited 10,000 household ‘and’ replies persally to ‘700 emails a day’, there is no way that we can err on the side of ‘fair’ when it’ comes to assessing the veracity of these claims? He’s lying.
Also he took 4 hours out of that crippling schedule tae come up with this very pish…a wunner if he gets triple time for those extra hours of ‘putting’ together a complete pile of made up numbers tae account for his very generous wages? He really does ‘need tae gie it a rest’ 😉
What a schedule. It’s small wonder that he is so thin.
I’ll have to take your word for it, Raineach. I’ve not been there often, but the arrogant wee toley has been in there every time, with his team. Maybe I got unlucky. Maybe he’s following me.
The Graun,
home›UK›scotlandwalesnorthernirelandeducationmediasocietylaw
Scotland
25 April 2017
Almost No news for all week from The Guardian’s hammer of the Scots, Severin Carrell. Either nothing newsworthy for the Graun’s gimps happened in Scotland this week, or Sevy’s fallen down a well?
Six days left, only 14% of target. Can you help? (Sorry for the spamming, but we’re getting fair anxious!)
link to indiegogo.com
The link to this article was put up in the previous thread, ah feel it’s worth just posting the entire article, because it’s an astounding piece of work by Jeanne Freeman and those who have worked tirelessly to make this happen in Scotland.
Ah cannot begin tae express the honour and the pride that ah feel having people like her in our parliament and our elected government who have now changed the law in our country. So that those (and it could be and is any and all of us down the line) who need assistance from our social security system are supported, without the torturous and humiliating process of being assessed by those private firms who have shown such merciless disregard for those who have been unfortunate enough over these past years to be subjected to their cruel and devasting sanction regimes.
This is the ‘day job’ in action, producing real results:
‘Scotland bans private firms from doing benefit assessments
by
Chris Green
57 mins Thursday April 27th 2017
Private firms will be banned from carrying out benefit assessments for Scotland’s new social security agency under plans to create a more compassionate system, ministers have announced.
The new agency will be responsible for administering social security payments worth around £2.8bn a year after the relevant powers are devolved to Holyrood from Westminster.
“Profit should never be a motive nor play any part in assessing or making decisions on people’s health and eligibility for benefits”
Jeane Freeman MSP
The Scottish Government said one of the main principles of the body, which will have running costs of around £150m a year, would be to “put people before profits”.
As part of this, private firms will not be used to carry out benefit assessments – a practice which has caused widespread controversy across the UK amid claims of sick people being forced back to work.
The new organisation will employ at least 1,500 staff, making it one of largest agencies of the Scottish Government, and will maintain a “local presence” across the country so people can access one-to-one support.
The details about the new agency were announced by Social Security Minister Jeane Freeman in a statement at the Scottish Parliament.
“One of our fundamental principles is that profit should never be a motive nor play any part in assessing or making decisions on people’s health and eligibility for benefits,” she said.
‘Dignity and respect’
“We are building a system based on dignity and respect – this means an assessment process which isn’t demeaning or deliberately difficult.
“I am very clear that assessments should not be carried out by the private sector and I want to give people in Scotland this assurance as we take forward our new social security agency.”
The move was welcomed by anti-poverty groups, who said the UK Government’s outsourcing of medical assessments to firms such as Atos and Capita had created “huge problems” for sick and disabled people.
Scottish Labour’s social justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill added: “People across Scotland have often suffered humiliating and damaging treatment at the hands of profit-driven companies – and it is absolutely right that will be brought to an end.”
The new agency will directly deliver 10 of the 11 benefits being devolved to Scotland.
These include the Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, Winter Fuel Payments and Sure Start Maternity Grant.
The SNP said the Scottish Government had so far spent more than £350m mitigating “callous” welfare cuts ordered by Conservative ministers and wanted to create a system “with dignity and respect at its heart”.
The new welfare powers are among numerous measures contained in the Scotland Act, which was drawn up following 2014’s independence referendum with the intention of bolstering Holyrood.
Earlier this year the Scottish Government said it would use the powers to increase the frequency of Universal Credit payments, giving claimants the option to be paid fortnightly instead of monthly.’
link to archive.is
@Sarah 2.14 Correction [doh] – We Own It ran the Buses campaign, not change.org.
Mr Murray forgot to mention all the time he spends on social media blocking his constituents (like me).
I’m picking up that he thinks his coat is on a very shoogly peg.
Hence Blair standing in East Renfrewshire.
Labour will be desperate to emerge after 8th June still with at least one MP in Scotland.
Hopefully their total will deservedly drop to zero.
On facebook and came across a rather pissed off english voter who said this…
………….
Jacquie Hutchins.
“Theresa May makes me ashamed to be English. And I’m a fucking patriot, not hardcore like some, but I do love my country and our multiculturalism, I just wish I ddin’t get lumped in with all the mouth foaming fantatics. 🙁 I hope both Ireland and Scotland get what they want. It will be a sad day to see the union dismantled, but we can’t force countries to stay within it, no matter what people think”.
………….
This was my response to her…
“Well said, and i totally respect you for such a pragmatic and honest view.
There is a lot made of democratic deficit in relation to Scotland, primarily in relation to how Scotland rarely gets the government we vote for. (we completely rejected WM unionism in 2015 and every Tory government at WM in the last 40 YEARS)
HOWEVER.
What is rarely mentioned is the democratic deficit in England.
There are millions of people in England who do not vote. (Close to 10 million in 2015)
Nobody ever addresses the reason why not.
It is in my opinion, because there are no political parties in England who satisfactorally represent the political views of those 10 million voters.
Labour, again in my opinion, are the main losers in this electoral disenfranchisement in England.
I would bet my last fiver that there is a HUGE amount of previous labour voters in that non voting bloc. Labour supporters who stopped voting labour after the rise of ‘new’ labour under Tony Blair.
I know many labour supporters personally, who state that they no longer vote labour because of the rise of the ‘blairite’ right wing, marginal tory vote chasing labour party.
The problem is, the type of labour voter who cannot vote for the current labour party, are NOT going to vote Tory any time soon, and after 2010 – 2015, they are NOT about to vote lib dem.
That leaves UKIP and the Greens.
Ukip are ruled out due to being worse than the right wing Tories, which leaves the Green Party to vote for.
Since it is just a fact of life that the Greens will never be in government, none of the 10 million non voters clearly think it is worth bothering voting green.
This saddens me greatly.
Not because i am an advocate looking to stir up a mass green vote, but because i am a firm believer in people exercising their right to vote.
In Scotland, we are lucky enough to have the SNP to vote for, especially considering the sorry state of the labour party nationally.
If the SNP did not exist, there would be a huge number of non voters in Scotland for the same reasons as i have outlined in England.
Obviously there is still a lot of non voters here in Scotland, but those who abandoned labour (in particular) due to their ever more right leanings, found a new home in a more centrist looking SNP.
They have clearly been impressed by the governance of the SNP as support (electorally) has consistently grown since 2007.
I really feel for the millions of English voters who feel disenfranchised by politics and politicians there. They have nobody to vote for, despite being, numerically wise, the LARGEST grouping if they were a Political Party.
If EVERY non voter in 2015 had voted for say, the Green Party THIS could have been the shape of the uk parliament, allowing for FPTP voting system.
This WILL stun you.
……….
Non-Voting Party …..345 seats.
Tory party….208 seats.
SNP…………….50 seats
Labour ……….42 seats
Others………….5 seats.
…………….
Here is the link to those numbers.
The one map that shows how ‘non-voting’ would have won the general election if it were a party | The Independent
link to independent.co.uk
……
Really makes you think, doesn’t it ?
Mainstream political parties could be REMOVED from power at WM by non voters getting out and getting behind an alternative to the 3 main unionist parties.
You really don’t need to take it from them.
People power CAN take back the uk from the sham representatives of the people.
There is a reason they like to keep the voting turnout low, that mocked up WM parliamentary numbers graph is exactly why”.
………….
Rogue Coder 2.38.
You’re not spamming and it looks like a worthwhile campaign, ideally all of these efforts would be able to get funding but that’s just not going to happen. I’ve already contributed to the WOS annual fundraiser and the SNP ref fund – which seems to have disappeared or at least gone very quiet though I concede that May’s election announcement was a curve ball – but now the only thing that I’d still be able to find cash for would be to help pay a crowdfund for a sustained, ongoing billboard/advan campaign. Also an updated WBB book, providing that I knew that it was going to be very widely and effectively distributed.
These are the kind of things that can get to the soft no demographic that we need and which could make a real, perhaps significant difference.
If the alternatives are working hard or working smart I guess Ian has chosen the former.
Rogue coder – contribution made. Keep up the good work.
link to indiegogo.com
…and where are our investigative journalists when this fantasy profile is spewed out by unionist MPs?
Well I suppose his “chums” will find him a management job with some charity or other. The pay tends to be good, why I don’t understand. Yeh I do understand, it’s just a job not a commitment, and the “chums” play the – “I’m responsible for a multi million budget, I could earn that in industry so you must pay me…..”
Going back up the thread a bit but it never ceases to amaze me at the easy ride STV News get from indy supporters and GA Ponsonby in particular. BBC Reporting Scotland DID mention the terrorist packages and quite prominently too. STV completely ignored it in their 6pm rush job though I never watched the new 7pm on STV2 so perhaps they did cover it then.
Well, Labour are well known for adding a bit too much to their numbers, things like 5000 odd Trident jobs at Faslane when we all know due to a FOI that it was 520 jobs reliant on Trident, or things like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or how many houses were built by their government when it was a massive 6 in total
Apologies if this has already been posted.
Apparently oor wee Ian definitely has more hours in a day than everyone else cause in amongst his free time he can find time to do this sort of thing.
link to plus.google.com
I’ve got to say, given a choice between Plan A) Ian Murray losing but getting 10 Tory MPs, or Plan B)Ian Murray MP for 2017-2021 (Independence Day) and zero, nil, zilch, absolutely nada Tories, bye bye Tories, bye-bye Mundell, Tory-MP-free Scotland, it’s Plan B – “Hello Ian Murray, Labour MP”.
#toriesout
David Caledonia says: 28 April, 2017 at 10:19 am
…”Ahhhhhhh you should never hurry a Murray”
That should be followed with “Murray Mince, Murray Mince…”
I’d sooner have a hoose visit from Deacon Brodie.
I live across the road from his constituency office. That means that for a while I had to look at a 12 foot image of him erected on his office wall. This is a man compensating for something….
Nevertheless, despite my proximity, he has never visited me nor has he offered to visit me.
I emailed him within days of his election back in 2015 with a concern and I’m still optimistically expecting to receive a response beyond his standard acknowledgement which claims that he gets hundreds of emails per day and which urged me to be patient. I wonder what all his tax payer funded staff are doing whilst he’s making this superhuman effort?
This is so unbelievably funny and combined with Abbott’s joke of an interview, doesn’t instill much confidence in the LAB party.
I just hate that this eejit is my MP and really hoping Edinburgh South will indeed give the guy some permanent rest after June 8th!