SNP Budget lets us all down
29 January
Labour candidate for Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley, Carol Mochan, has attacked the SNP’s draft budget as selling our communities short.
She said,
‘The SNP Budget falls short of a fair settlement for Councils by £900m - £326m revenue, £20m capital and £512m COVID spending. At a time when Westminster is increasing Holyrood’s budget by 4% the SNP Government is offering public sector workers a maximum of 3% and that only to the lowest paid. Care workers surely deserve a pay above the Living Wage of at least £15 an hour not just a round of applause.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission, the independent budget scrutiny body, has just forecast that growth will not return to pre outbreak levels until 2024 with unemployment peaking at 7.6% this summer and staying high for several years. Why on earth would you want to focus your attention on another Independence Referendum at such a time. Look at the headaches being caused by the Brexit aftermath right now. Why heap all that uncertainty and more on Scotland at a time when we should be focusing all our efforts on planning for a COVID recovery.
We have had four years of being represented by Jeane Freeman, an MSP who is little more than a government stooge. I had hoped for a more independent line from the new SNP candidate, Elena Whitham. Instead she has just trotted out a few headline figures and called it the most historic budget ever. Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley deserves a better champion than that.’
29 January
Labour candidate for Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley, Carol Mochan, has attacked the SNP’s draft budget as selling our communities short.
She said,
‘The SNP Budget falls short of a fair settlement for Councils by £900m - £326m revenue, £20m capital and £512m COVID spending. At a time when Westminster is increasing Holyrood’s budget by 4% the SNP Government is offering public sector workers a maximum of 3% and that only to the lowest paid. Care workers surely deserve a pay above the Living Wage of at least £15 an hour not just a round of applause.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission, the independent budget scrutiny body, has just forecast that growth will not return to pre outbreak levels until 2024 with unemployment peaking at 7.6% this summer and staying high for several years. Why on earth would you want to focus your attention on another Independence Referendum at such a time. Look at the headaches being caused by the Brexit aftermath right now. Why heap all that uncertainty and more on Scotland at a time when we should be focusing all our efforts on planning for a COVID recovery.
We have had four years of being represented by Jeane Freeman, an MSP who is little more than a government stooge. I had hoped for a more independent line from the new SNP candidate, Elena Whitham. Instead she has just trotted out a few headline figures and called it the most historic budget ever. Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley deserves a better champion than that.’
