Anger over column

What a wonderful article by Alex Neil in the Wishaw Press on November 23 quoting Tony Blair and describing the Labour Party ‘s mantra that “education is the tool of advancement for the working class”.

In writing this article he has obviously forgotten that he is an SNP MSP as he has eagerly supported their education and taxation policies for at least the last decade.

I think I should remind him and your readers of a number of the “highlights” (or perhaps lowlights) of the SNP’s education policies since they came to power. 1. Loss of 4383 teachers since 2007. 2. Loss of 150,000 further education places as well as redefining a full time week as two and a half days.

3. Reneging on a promise to have a maximum of 18 pupils in primary one to three.

4. A shortage of 650 nurseries and 3250 staff.

5. In 2015 the richest pupils in this country were equal to Hong Kong in attainment i.e. the best in the world, whereas pupils from deprived backgrounds had an attainment equal to Turkey - 44th in the world. I could go on. It should be remembered that this lamentable position in education mostly came about when the SNPled Scottish Government was underspending the block grant from the UK Government - eg - £444 million in 2014 and £350 million in 2015.

Despite his plea in the last paragraph of his article the SNP has no plan to increase the taxes of the rich, another example of the hypocrisy shown by the SNP, saying they wish to improve people’s lives but taking no action to carry it out. Thank goodness Alex Neil did learn some economic justice in his days as a Labour Party worker. Gordon Taylor