Stop the cuts and invest in our schools and care for the elderly
impact of these SNP cuts to protect the poorest.
But with one in four children in North Lanarkshire growing up in child poverty, it is unacceptable for the SNP government to continue to force these cuts onto communities.
Just weeks ago, Scotland was handed the worst education report since devolution.
It revealed that Scotland is declining when compared with other countries on reading, maths and science.
More figures released earlier this month found that one in four primary school pupils leaves school unable to read at the expected level.
That’s the consequence of nearly a decade of SNP cuts, which sees Scotland with 4,000 fewer teachers and an 18 per cent fall in support staff. The SNP told us that education was its number one priority – so why slash local education budgets by £327million in the coming year?
The dire education figures followed Scotland’s worst state of the NHS report since devolution. On seven out of eight key standards, the SNP is failing.
The way to fix our NHS for the long term is by investing in social care for the elderly, to take pressure off our hospitals and hardworking NHS staff.
But the SNP plans to slash the budgets of councils which deliver social care by a further £327million.
The Nationalists don’t have to do this. The Scottish Government has the powers to take a different path now.
Labour will table amendments to the Scottish budget to use these new tax powers to stop the cuts to local services, and stop the cuts to North Lanarkshire.
We cannot and will not accept another austerity budget from the SNP.
2016 is not a year many of us will forget any time soon.
It’ll go down in history as the year of Brexit and Donald Trump.
Next year we’ll see even more challenges as the UK government attempts to trigger Article 50 and President-elect Trump is sworn in.
It will be difficult, but it can get better - and Labour party members across Scotland will work all through 2017 to make Scotland a better, fairer place to live in.
A very happy new year to all readers of the Wishaw Press.