Northern Scot Column
Posted on Friday, July 20 2007
Stuck in a rut or shooting for the stars? It has been a week of contrasts to start with I had a meeting with representatives of Moray's biking and motoring organisations to discuss the threat posed by centralisation of motorbike test centres. Later the same evening I met local members of the Public & Commercial Services Union, also about issues around centralisation. Unfortunately this seems to be the driving force in the current Westminster Government - efficiency over customer satisfaction and cost cutting over service delivery. What is clear is that those suffering are the frontline workers, whether it is the local Jobcentre Plus, the Inland Revenue, Civilian Defence Staff or Driving Instructors. The pressures being put on these essential services are unacceptable. Customer Service is compromised, indeed one long-serving public servant described themselves as being embarrassed by the service they are allowed to provide rather than the service they want to provide. These professions are not always high profile, nor does the public always have a huge affinity with civil servants but the fact is that these services are the backbone of our society. After all if no-one collected tax, processed pension payments or taught people to drive then society as we know it would fall apart. The government may not be removing these services but centralisation makes them faceless, it takes away a local connection and puts people out of work in areas like Moray. It creates an economic black hall pulling money and resources into urban areas leaving rural areas with decreasing standards of living, poor job prospects and an exodus of young talent and innovation. Everyone, no exceptions, needs these services. Help protect them and support the campaigns to save local jobs and provide local services. On a lighter note, so light in fact that it's spacebound, there have been further reports of Virgin Galactic's commercial spaceflight plans. The House of Commons Science & Technology Committee has urged the government to give full consideration to regulatory support for a potential space tourism industry. Clearly if the government makes an early start to help the industry it would provide a base for major investment and with Moray a frontrunner as a potential space tourism location I will be pushing this issue with Westminster Ministers, keeping Moray in the public eye. The contrast between current policy and future ambition could not be greater. On the one hand government centralisation draws the life-blood out of Moray while Richard Branson wants Moray to be a base to shoot for the stars.
MORAY MP WELCOMES HELP THE AGED REPORT
Posted on Monday, July 16 2007
Means tested pensioner benefits 'not fit for purpose' - Robertson Angus Robertson, Scottish National Party MP for Moray has welcomed a report commissioned by Help the Aged that highlights the problems of means testing and poor take up of benefits by pensioners. Research carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on behalf of leading older people's charity Help the Aged shows a clear link between these issues and severe poverty among older people. The key measures called for in the report include linking pensions to earnings - a measure that the SNP has campaigned consistently for over many years; paying benefits automatically to ensure full take up rates - this would pull half a million pensioners out of poverty; paying a full basic state pension to all older people - again taking half a million out of poverty. The reports conclusion mirror the SNP's ongoing concerns of the current obsession with means testing which discourages older people from claiming what is rightfully theirs, adding to the extreme poverty that many pensioners find themselves in. Help the Aged has stated that if the recommendations of the report were implemented then more than 500,000 older people could be lifted out of severe poverty. Commenting on the findings the SNP's Angus Robertson said: " Pensioners throughout Moray are being short-changed by the iniquitous and inadequate policies of the Westminster Labour Government. " I have long said that pensions should be linked to earnings because all that is happening just now is a year-on-year campaign for simple and basic increases in pension. People who have worked hard all their lives should not be having to go cap in hand every year for a basic pension that they have paid taxes and National Insurance stamps to receive. " Many other benefits are heavily means tested which hugely discourages take-up of money that just ends up sitting around in the Treasury waiting to be claimed. Many older people have little or no experience claiming benefits and are completely discouraged from doing so because local contact is being removed from the system through excessive cost cutting and centralisation " The government needs to make fundamental changes to the pension system, reduce means-testing and start pro-actively paying benefits.
SNP CALL FOR IRAQ PULLOUT
Posted on Sunday, July 15 2007
IRAQI PM SAYS COALITION TROOPS CAN LEAVE “ANYTIME THEY WANT”The Scottish National Party (SNP) has called for the London Government to begin the pullout of UK forces from Iraq.The call by Westminster SNP leader Angus Robertson MP comes after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi forces are capable and coalition troops can leave "anytime they want." It also follows a vote by the US House of Representatives in favour of pulling out most combat troops. The third vote this year to end US military involvement comes as more Republicans are criticising the continuing military presence in Iraq.Speaking ahead of Defence Questions in the House of Commons tomorrow (Monday) Westminster SNP leader Angus Robertson MP said:“The time has come for the UK government to announce the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq. “Both the Iraqi Prime Minister and US Congress have recognised the changed circumstance and ironically it is only the UK government and President Bush that are holding out.“The continuing presence of UK and US forces is not the solution to the disastrous situation in Iraq. It is time for our brave servicemen and women to return home.“The SNP has consistently opposed the operations in Iraq, and now the US Congress and even leading Republicans are coming to the same view. “As Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown voted for and bankrolled the Iraq war. Now as Prime Minister he should end this disastrous foreign policy mistake which has cost so many lives. ENDS
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