SNP is failing children and climate
What is the point of setting targets that you are very unlikely to meet?
That is the question being put to the Scottish Government this week, and for multiple, well founded reasons.
In its report to the Scottish Parliament, the Climate Change Committee – an independent advisory body – said that the climate targets the Scottish Government wants to achieve by 2030, including reducing emissions by 75 per cent were “beyond what is credible”.
To avoid doubt of just how much detail is lacking in the government’s plans to achieve net zero, the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, said, “that is a failure of the Scottish Government to bring to the Scottish people and the Scottish Parliament, a climate change plan that is fit for purpose”.
In other words, despite all of the world-leading ambitions and rhetoric from this government, there has been very little coming from them in actual delivery.
There is no one to blame for that lack of progress other than themselves.
So long as there is hesitation and a lack of progress coming from the Scottish Government, there will not just be uncertainty about our environment but also around the economy.
Workers deserve certainty as our country tries to embrace the just transition and that’s why Scottish Labour proposes to have a publicly owned GB energy company based in Scotland that will deliver energy security, cut bills and create jobs whilst reducing emissions.
The second damning revelation to come out this week is that the Scottish Government are also failing to meet their poverty related targets.
The government made a commitment to reduce child poverty from 24 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030 and achieve an interim target of 18 per cent by 2023/24.
Having assessed the latest Scottish Government statistics, research bodies and charities are warning that these targets are in serious risk of being missed.
Scotland faces two governments letting people down.
An uncaring Tory government who won’t act and an SNP government not doing enough.
As much as members of the SNP government will insist they’re doing everything they can to tackle poverty, it’s important to remember this is the same government that decided in its latest budget to slash funding for affordable housing.
They made the decision to cut that funding by 26 per cent– a staggering £196 million – at the same time as knowing that almost 10,000 children face life in temporary accommodation.
So it seems that by failing to meet self-imposed and legally binding targets, this SNP government is demonstrating how easy it is to produce rhetoric and how difficult it is to back it up with action.
The reality is this government, very much like the Tories, is out of ideas and the news that they are so far off meeting their own targets in climate change and poverty is damning evidence of it.
It’s time for change and that change cannot come soon enough.
The first step will be electing a Labour government this year.
The last Labour government lifted millions out of poverty and we will do the same again by cutting bills and boosting wages across the UK and driving down housing and transport costs here in Scotland but it’s clear that the only way to get the Tories out of office and deliver change is to vote for it with Labour.