First Minister must focus on the important issues
Nicola Sturgeon found time last week to take a trip to North America.
Now that she has returned home, I hope she will pay more attention to the problems that are facing people here in Rutherglen and Cambuslang.
We heard the news last week that the SNP Government plans to tackle the staff shortages in the NHS have been delayed.
As an MSP, I get more queries about the NHS than any other issue. Local people needing important operations like hip and knee replacements are stuck on waiting lists.
Last year 23 operations were cancelled on average each day. These people will be deeply frustrated that much needed plans to bring in more staff have been delayed.
On the trains the misery for rail passengers continues. New figures released last week revealed that thousands of train services had been cancelled in the past year. In the run in to Christmas, up to 46 trains a day were being cancelled.
As train passengers stand on local platforms, they are well used to hearing the announcement –‘This train has been cancelled.’ It is now getting beyond a joke.
People are ending up late for work, school and college and missing medical appointments.
Michael Matheson, the Transport Minster seems powerless to deal with the endless delays, cancellations and overcrowded trains. It is time to take the contract off the current operator Albellio. We need a publicly owned ScotRail that puts the passengers first.
Nicola Sturgeon is a Glasgow MSP and must surely be concerned about the number of homeless people sleeping rough in Glasgow.
I raised this issue directly with her at First Minster’s questions recently in the Scottish Parliament. This followed the tragic death of a young woman sleeping in a tent in Glasgow’s Gallowgate.
Sadly, one person a month dies while rough sleeping on Glasgow’s streets. This is a dreadful situation in what we like to think of as a modern progressive country.
The government needs to take the crisis more seriously and work with housing charities like Shelter to identify rough sleepers and find them safe accommodation.
The SNP/Green deal on the budget means we will now have a plan to charge people for parking their car at work. The proposal has not been thought out properly.
Indeed the Government have admitted that they have not done any economic analysis on it. It in no way makes up for the £230m of cuts faced by local councils.
We need a better plan than taxing people for taking their car to work.
So First Minster, as you return home it is time to deal with the problems on your own doorstep. Sort out the crisis in the NHS, let’s have a train service that runs on time, end the scandal of people sleeping rough and ditch the unpopular workplace car parking tax.