June 2010 - 11:20 am, Mon 28th Jun 2010
More Nats, Fewer Nurses
We should be deeply concerned about patient care following revelations that the SNP Government is cutting almost 4,000 NHS jobs, including over 1,500 nurses across Scotland this year.
In NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 1,200 jobs will go, including over 600 nursing posts.
The SNP have imposed a much tighter budget settlement on the NHS with, for the first time since devolution a 0.4% real terms cut in the budget. This compares badly with Labour's record of budget increases for the NHS in England.
The Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is being dishonest when she says that this will have no impact on the frontline. Even NHS managers admit that the SNP's cuts in the workforce will "lead to a reduced service".
These cuts that the SNP are imposing on the NHS will have an impact on patient safety and we need to fight them. You simply cannot make doctors, nurses and midwives redundant without damaging frontline services
The reality of this SNP administration is that "More Nats means 1,523 Fewer Nurses". Scottish Labour believes that these cuts are totally unacceptable and we will continue to campaign to defend frontline NHS jobs.
More Nats, Fewer Teachers
New figures released from the General Teaching Council for Scotland this month make worrying reading for our young teachers.
The percentage of post probationary teachers gaining permanent secondary school posts fell from 74.2% in April 2008 to 48.0% in the current survey while the primary percentage fell from 40.3% to 24% over the same period.
Back in 2007, the SNP promised the Scottish people 53,000 teachers in Scottish schools but there are now 2,000 fewer teachers since they came into power.
These figures show the damage being done to Scottish education and the careers of newly qualified teachers by the SNP's failure to keep their promises and their mismanagement of Scottish education. More and more highly trained and well qualified teachers are left without any prospect of permanent or even temporary employment, and left as a casualised workforce.
On this evidence it would also appear that more Nats results in fewer jobs for our teachers.
Council Rent Rip Off
New figures emerged last week which show that council house tenants in West Dunbartonshire are paying over £300 more in rent than they did when the SNP first came to power.
Scottish Labour submitted a Freedom of Information request to all 32 local authorities asking for average weekly rent figures from 2008/2009 to 2010/2011.
Council tenants in West Dunbartonshire have been asked to pay an extra £328.12 in rent over the last three years.
It is simply unacceptable that West Dunbartonshire Council tenants, many of whom are in minimum wage jobs, are being asked to pay above-inflation rent increases. They are paying the price of an underfunded council tax freeze that primarily benefits the better off.
The SNP’s failure to fill the gap they have created in council budgets means that the young, the old and the most vulnerable are being punished. This cannot be right.
