TALKING POLITICS Paying price for Tory cuts

Cuts, cuts, cuts everywhere.

Despite Boris Johnson’s promise that austerity is over, public services are still being torn to ribbons throughout the UK.

For the past 10 years, public services have been slashed to pay for huge tax cuts for the rich. The Scottish Government’s budget has been cut by £1.5 billion a year, the consequence of which is there just isn’t enough money available to pay for all the services we need.

As well as public spending cuts, Scotland has suffered badly from other policies imposed on Scotland by the Tory government.

For example, the main reason why we have such a dire shortage of GPs and hospital doctors is because of the so-called reforms the Tories made to their pension funds.

These changes have resulted in many doctors retiring at a much younger age than they intended because they lose a lot of money if they continue working full-time.

A totally ill-thought-out NHS pensions policy made in London by third- rate incompetents is having a devastating impact on our national health service in Scotland.

Although the NHS is supposed to be devolved to the Scottish Government, the pensions policy for the health service is decided by Tory ministers at Westminster, without any consultation with the health ministers in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

As a result, we are all now paying a heavy price for their congenital stupidity and ignorance. The impact of Tory cuts over the past 10 years locally on Airdrie and Shotts has been devastating.

Our schools are under-funded, resulting in inadequate resources for additional needs pupils, who now make up about 30 per cent of pupils. These are children who need the most help to succeed at school.

Social care services are struggling with ever-increasing demand for their services; community centres are being run down or closed.

And now North Lanarkshire Council has decided to shut down the Kilbowie outdoor centre, which has served our communities so well for so long; a decision that must be reversed.

There are also rumblings the council is planning to shut the John Smith Pool; this would be another cut too far, and simply unacceptable.

Scotland is a wealthy country. We could manage our own purse strings far better than any government in London; we could put Scotland’s wealth to work for our citizens.

To be able to do that, we need our country to be independent.

Counting the cost Mr Neil says public services are “still being torn to ribbons throughout the UK”