Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
WORKING FOR YOU Aligning with Tories led to £1m in education cuts
Two weeks ago saw important spending decisions being taken, with both the Scottish Parliament and North Lanarkshire Council passing their budgets.
Yet the priorities couldn’t be further apart.
In the parliament, the SNP government worked alongside the Green party to implement a progressive budget which continues to mitigate against the worst of the Tory cuts from London.
Health will see a £400 million increase, with over £1.1 billion being allocated to NHS Lanarkshire. The government has ended the public sector pay cap and implemented an aboveinflation pay increase for all employees earning under £36,500. It has also allocated almost £180m directly to head teachers to continue the work to close the attainment gap – almost £9m will come to North Lanarkshire.
These decisions are just a snapshot of what has been done, all while continuing to provide free tuition, prescriptions and social care.
Crucially for the people of North Lanarkshire, the government also provided an above-inflation increase to North Lanarkshire Council.
All of this while reducing income tax for 70 per cent of the people in Scotland. It’s amazing what can be done when two progressive, sociallyjust parties work together for the good of the people.
Contrast that with the situation in North Lanarkshire, where last year Labour made the decision to work with the Tories rather than the SNP.
This has resulted in the Tories holding Labour’s budget hostage. Any administration that fails to pass its budget loses power and the Tories knew that.
Despite a commitment from their leader, the Tory party didn’t even present their own budget, instead making sure they got what they wanted in the Labour budget.
If ever there was any doubt that this is a joint Labour/ Tory administration, that evaporated with them presenting their joint budget to defeat the SNP.
And the results are horrible. Cuts of over £1m from education, including more than £600,000 from head teachers’ budgets, the complete removal of swimming lessons for primaryaged children, and a massive increase in the cost of burying loved ones are just some of the cuts being made despite an increase in funding.
I am also shocked by the spending proposals they rejected. The SNP group proposed to extend free school lunches to all primary children by 2021, starting with Primary Fours in August and moving up a year each year.
This was rejected by the Labour/Tory administration, just days after the Tories tried to scupper plans from the education department to end holiday hunger.
Following a joint letter of all North Lanarkshire SNP MSPs, MPs and group leader David Stocks, the SNP council group also proposed to increase funding to Women’s Aid as well as the Citizens Advice Bureaux and other important support organisations. These proposals were also shamefully blocked.
These are just a few examples of the devastating impact this Labour/Tory administration is having on the people of North Lanarkshire. This is an area that was devastated by Tory policies in the 1980s and still carries the scars of deprivation and child poverty as UK austerity bites.
SNP and Labour both have 33 councillors each and it’s now time for Labour to do the right thing, accept the SNP group’s offer of talks, and put an end to this small group of Tories calling the shots.
Labour made the decision to work with the Tories... This resulted in the Tories holding Labour’s budget hostage