10th October 2022: A Week in Parliament
/The Tale of Two Studies
If you would like to see the difference in Westminster and Holyrood governance, look no further than two contrasting studies published last week. Firstly, the study by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health found that 335,000 excess deaths, including 20,000 in Scotland, are linked to austerity policy imposed by Westminster. It is heartbreaking to read that these Dickensian austerity measures introduced by the Tories have led to the deaths of more than 330,000 people. It personifies once again that the Tory Westminster government shows nothing but contempt for the most vulnerable in our society.
Whereas, the second report from the independent Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) details how the Scottish Government spends more on social security than it gets in funding from the UK Government – around £500million more in 2022-23 and forecast to rise to £1.3billion more in 2027-28. However, due to the way Scotland’s budget is funded, these increases are being put at immediate risk as the Tories prepare to unleash another devastating wave of austerity cuts to public services to pay for their chronic mishandling of the UK economy.
It is the tale of two studies and firmly makes the case for Scotland to go its own way before more suffer as a result of these cruelling Westminster cuts.
Brodie Engineering
A massive well done to everyone at Brodie Engineering who have won even more accolades at this year’s Global Light Rail Awards. Brodie has built on last year’s success where they won Supplier of the Year. The rail engineering firm won Project of the Year < £50m and also achieved Highly Commended awards in the following categories: Team of the Year, Supplier of the Year and Technical Innovation of the Year. It is fantastic to see a business in the constituency thriving, especially one that brings so much employment to the area. I visited the site back in 2018 and hope to visit in the future, well done again to the team and keep up the great work!
Kilmarnock F.C.
At the beginning of last week if you asked me if I would have taken four points from the two upcoming games I would have. However, the manner in which we blew a two-goal lead at home to Hearts on Sunday certainly makes it feel like a defeat. Having said that, there is a lot to be positive about, especially the Hearts game, as the team look to have settled a bit and we are creating a lot more chances. It definitely helps that Jones and, in particular, Danny Armstrong have found their stride and are giving us some much-needed width. The league is still extremely tight and let’s hope we can carry this form onto St Mirren away on Saturday, and also Dundee United in the quarter-finals of the league cup on Tuesday. It has been over 10 years since we played at Hampden and we are now 90-minutes away – in Derek we trust!
