TALKING POLITICS ‘Difficult’ year ahead for many

Happy new year to all of my constituents and Advertiser readers.

I hope 2020 is a happy and prosperous one for all across this area.

In many ways, because of the new political arithmetic in the Commons, I suspect this year may be a difficult one for my constituents.

Boris Johnson is already using and abusing his majority and new found power. He has used the Brexit Bill, passed last week, to grab unprecedented power from our Scottish Parliament.

Written into that legislation is the power for Westminster to write laws in areas that are the responsibility of Holyrood in an unprecedented way.

The Tory government wasted no time in undermining the rights of disabled people by refusing them the choice to have work capability assessment results shared with their GPs.

And Boris Johnson appears set to ignore the clearly expressed will of the people of Scotland to give Holyrood the power to hold a referendum on Scotland’s future, despite the SNP enjoying a greater electoral mandate from the general election than he did.

Boris Johnson is trying to spread his wings after his election victory, but he is in danger of flying too close to the sun as he conflates the support he enjoyed elsewhere in the UK as meaning he has universal support across Britain.

Scotland overwhelmingly rejected Boris Johnson’s idea of Brexit Britain.

It would serve him well to remember that and to come to the table to negotiate so that the will of the people can be observed.

In better news, I am pleased to see NHS Lanarkshire publishing the three sites it wishes to put forward as the site for the new Monklands Hospital.

I am delighted that the site in Glenmavis remains in contention and that a new site at Wester Moffat, between Airdrie and Plains, has been added.

This offers two very good options for the new hospital to remain in the local area and to have two options that can unite the public, politicians and the health board in this fantastic new investment in modern healthcare services for the local area.

I stood on a platform at the general election and have campaigned hard for months to see Gartcosh removed as an option.

It has been widely discredited and is incredibly unpopular among the public and local representatives.

I hope the scoring exercise going forward will now deliver a result that can unite us all so that this fantastic opportunity can be realised as soon as possible.

Alex Neil MSP and I will continue to work hard to this very end.

Vow Mr Gray has said he will “continue to work hard” to keep Monklands Hospital “in the local area”