Monday 10th August PATRONAGE CIRCUS CONTINUES AT WESTMINSTER WITH KNIGHTOODS FOR DEFEATED MPS LUCRATIVE GONGS WILL OPEN DOORS FOR THE TORIES’ LIB DEM HELPERS There are reports that a number of Liberal Democrat MPs who lost their seats at the election in May are to be rewarded with peerages and knighthoods – despite being comprehensively rejected by the electorate. The LibDems have now just one MP in Scotland but look certain to add to their tally at Westminster with the imminent creation of another 50 or so peers – to add to the cronies and party funders who make up Westminster’s second chamber. It nowRead More →

The SNP has today marked UN International Youth Day by calling on young people aged 15 and over to register to vote ahead of next year’s Scottish general election. This reflects this year’s International Youth Day theme of ‘Youth Civic Engagement’. The 2016 election will be the first where 16 and 17 year olds will have the right to vote following the unanimous passage of the Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Bill in June this year. Last week the Electoral Commission launched a campaign to maximise voter registration amongst young people who will be 16 by the time of the election. Commenting, the UK’sRead More →

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mwwjx. Episode 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n0v2p   Episode 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06715gp   Episode 3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nbtwc    Episode 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng1br    Episode 5 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069x4y5    Episode 6        Read More →

As analysis takes place of the Tory Government’s austerity agenda, the evidence mounts that it is the most vulnerable in our communities who are hit hardest; children, disabled people, single parents and the working poor.  Only this week it has been highlighted that the shameful tory cuts in tax credits will see nearly 350,000 children worse off as a result of George Osborne’s budget.  The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) show that 197,200 families in Scotland with a total of 346,000 children have been hit by the changes to tax credits.  This comes hot on the heels of the Institute of Fiscal Studies report “LivingRead More →

The Scottish Government has welcomed STV on joining the Scottish Business Pledge, with the company being the 70th company to agree to sign up for this initiative – with one company on average joining every day since the launch in May 2015. Since the launch, businesses have been working in conjunction with the Scottish Government to boost productivity, incorporate fairness and generate growth across the private sector.  Companies who sign up to the pledge commit to pay their employees the living wage, which is set independently by the Living Wage Foundation. Scottish Business Pledge has nine components: paying the living wage; not using exploitative zeroRead More →

One thing we can say about the Labour Party, be that “New Labour”, “Old Labour” or even “Real Labour” is that they have a penchant for making themselves look foolish. Indeed it might even be described as a virus in the heart of Labour. They are tearing lumps out of each other in a way which simply demonstrates that Labour are really at least two political parties sharing a tent and they detest each other much more than the other parties, at least in England. (They unite around the policy “SNP Bad!” if nothing else.) Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union,Read More →