Parliament speech dances around cost of living crisis
This week, the PM was accused of missing an opportunity to tackle the current financial crisis in the Queen’s Speech ... as Scotland’s train driver pay row causes cancellations across the country
Monday, May 9 Council workers target schools for strike in pay battle
SCOTS schools face being shut in a targeted local government workers’ strike in a dispute over pay, The Herald can reveal.
Thousands of local government services staff are preparing for a strike ballot in a dispute over pay.
The public services union Unison has confirmed an indicative ballot of council staff has already revealed an “incredible” 89.8 per cent voted in favour of taking industrial action up to and including strike action over an “unacceptable” pay offer.
Trade unions representing 200,000 local government workers across Scotland have already written to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) – which acts as an employers’ association – to say that councils have failed to come up with an acceptable pay offer for workers whose pay has been “held down for too many years”.
But union sources have revealed any future strike is likely to be targeted to areas where there will be the “highest impact”, and it will ensure that any strike meets strict legal thresholds over turnout – and schools are top of the agenda.
One senior union sources revealed: “It is likely we will target an occupational group, rather than a specific authority. If we decide to ballot all members in schools, that would have quite an impact. It would shut them.”
Tuesday, May 10 Starmer vows to step down if fined over ‘beergate’ scandal
SIR Keir Starmer has taken the biggest gamble of his political career and promised to resign if he is fined for a breach of lockdown rules – unlike Boris Johnson.
After weeks of pressure over the so-called “beergate” scandal, the UK Labour leader tried to make a virtue out of his predicament by turning the tables on his Tory detractors.
Contrasting his “honour and integrity” with the Prime Minister’s refusal to quit, he said he would “do the right thing and step down” if he was also fined by the police.
His deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said she would do the same.
After a day of frantic activity in the leader of the opposition’s office, Sir Keir set out his position in a hastily arranged statement to a handful of broadcasters at Labour HQ.
He also said he was “absolutely clear” that no laws were broken when he and Ms Rayner were at a gathering of Labour activists last year where beer and curry were served.
He said he had simply had something to eat late in the evening while campaigning in English local elections in Durham.
Wednesday, May 11 Queen’s Speech fails to tackle cost-of-living crisis, say critics
BORIS Johnson has missed the opportunity to tackle the cost-ofliving crisis in the Queen’s Speech, critics have warned.
Prince Charles delivered the royal address to the Houses of Parliament yesterday alongside his eldest son William, as the monarch was unable to attend for the first time in 59 years.
The historic occasion marked the official opening of the new term of Parliament, and has only twice before been conducted by someone else other than the Queen in her 70-year reign.
In the shortest Queen’s Speech for a decade, the Prince of Wales set out how Mr Johnson will seek to boost the economy, continue the levelling-up agenda, and change a raft of legislation in the wake of Brexit.
However, campaigners and politicians say the 38 Bills announced will do nothing to help people struggling now with rising food and energy prices, and have accused the Prime Minister of missing the mark.
Prince Charles announced that the Government would look to increase the country’s energy security by “supporting low-carbon energy system” and reducing gas dependence.
In Scotland, a bid to establish a carbon capture and storage facility in Aberdeenshire was rejected by Westminster in favour of another bid in the north of England, with SNP MPs outraged at the decision.
Thursday, May 12 Failure to isolate Covid patient led to hospital outbreak
AVOIDABLE delays in isolating an elderly Covid patient are believed to have triggered outbreaks of the virus in a Lanarkshire hospital, an internal investigation has found.
A Significant Adverse Event Review
(SAER), leaked to The Herald, reveals that the man – who had tested negative on presenting at A&E on December 27, 2021, following a fall and a head injury – was not given a follow-up swab as he should have been on day five, Hogmanay.
When a test was eventually carried out on day 10 of his hospital stay, by which time he had been transferred to a second ward, the positive result was missed for a further three days because it was reported at 6.30pm on a Friday when infection prevention and control (IPC) staff had finished for the weekend.
Friday, May 13
Train services axed as drivers’ bitter pay row escalates
HUNDREDS of train services have been cancelled this week due to driver shortages linked to a bitter pay dispute ahead of a possible summer of strikes on the newly-nationalised rail network.
More than 100 service cancellations across Scotland yesterday hit the key Glasgow to Edinburgh service and the world-renowned West Highland
Line because of a driver shortage. At least a further 60 services had train carriages cut so they carried fewer people, because of the shortage.
Some customers were told by ScotRail on social media that the shortages were the result of “driver strikes”. There are concerns that Scotland is seeing the start of a summer of disruption hitting ScotRail and cross-border services through a series of pay disputes.
Cross-border services run by rail operator TransPennine Express (TPE) face a new round of disruption over the next four weekends as the Rail, Transport and Maritime (RMT) union escalates strike action over pay. Thousands of Network Rail workers are also currently being balloted for strike action, which it is feared will bring Scottish services to a standstill, as safety concerns surface over plans to cut hundreds of critical maintenance jobs.
Saturday, May 14 Probe into latest spike in deaths of newborns
AN investigation has been launched into a “very unusual” spike in deaths among newborn babies in Scotland for the second time in just six months.
The alarm was raised after 18 infants died within four weeks of birth in March, causing the mortality rate to breach an upper warning threshold known as the “control limit” that signals a potential problem.
The control limit was previously exceeded in September last year, when 21 neonatal deaths were reported.
It was the first time this had occurred since monitoring began in July 2017.
Public Health Scotland (PHS) tracks the neonatal mortality rate on a monthly basis to identify any abnormal increases that are unlikely to be down to chance.
The neonatal mortality rate was 5.1 per 1,000 live births in September and 4.6 per 1,000 in March, against an average of 1.49 per 1,000 in 2019. The recent spikes have coincided with Covid surges, but it is unclear whether there is any direct link. PHS also notes there was “a sustained period in the middle part of 2021 when neonatal and infant mortality rates were higher than pre-pandemic levels”.