1^st November 2010

CARING FOR THE CARERS

At a time when value for money is at a premium, I met with a group of people this week who contribute to a £500 million saving to the public purse every year.

These are the grandmothers, brothers and sisters who step into difficult situations and provide stability to some of the most vulnerable children in society, with no thought for financial reward.

In fact, three out of four of these kinship carers live in poverty but still take on the care of children despite the obvious difficulties this brings.

For someone in their sixties or even their seventies, looking after a teenager full time is a difficult job, simply because the world has moved on since they were parents.

And finding money for the latest trainers or designer jackets when you are a pensioner on a fixed income is a challenge unheard of their day..

But these caring family members still take on this responsibility when the parental situation breaks down, often because of drug abuse, leaving children damaged and facing a life in care.

It is estimated that there are at least 13,000 children supported by kinship carers in Scotland.

While it’s accepted that kinship care is the best form of early intervention, financial support has fallen far short of what is needed and varies in different parts of the country.

With the UK Government, the Scottish Government and local authorities all having part responsibility for Scotland’s carers, we have hit an impasse in providing this support.

At an event to mark UK Grandparents Day this week, I was able to meet with many kinship carers, just as I have done with dozens in Inverclyde over the years.

These committed carers never fail to humble me with their personal stories and the fact that they are saving the state hundreds of millions of pounds by providing this care doesn’t come into consideration.

Maybe it should – then they would realise the bargaining power they have in calling in for the allowance they should be entitled to do.

Only real leadership from government will end this discrimination and meet our responsibilities to Scotland’s kinship carers.

11^th October  2010

THE HUMAN COSTS

Forgetting where we placed our glasses or car keys can happen to any of us, no matter what our age.

We have all had the moment where we walk up to the fridge only to completely forget what we had been looking for, something we would light-heartedly describe as a ‘senior moment’.

But even our own forgetful experiences couldn’t prepare us for the challenge people and families face as they confront the early stages of dementia.

The loss of control and ability to function day to day must be a difficult, frustrating and confidence-sapping experience for people used to enjoying their own independence.

For some time, this hasn’t been helped by the debate over when the drugs that can stabilise the symptoms should be prescribed to those in the early stages of the condition.

Campaigners described the refusal to issue these drugs to all dementia patients as ‘cruel and unethical’.

The drugs, which cost around £2.80 a day, could mean the difference between recognising loved ones and being able to play with grandchildren.

This week, drugs czars relented and agreed to make drugs like Aricept, Reminyl and Exelon available to those with early stage symptoms available in England. I hope there will be no delay in extending this in Scotland.

It means more than 30,000 people will get the benefit of these drugs and enjoy a better quality of life.

Sadly, there is no miracle cure for dementia conditions and it presents a tough situation, not just for patients but families and carers.

But we can take some comfort from the fact we have good services here in Inverclyde, such as the highly-praised Dunrod unit at Ravenscraig Hospital, and the Inverclyde day care project based at Larkfield View, which I visited recently to mark World Alzheimer’s Day.

People with dementia are some of the most vulnerable in society and in this development this week, there is a valuable lesson.

Balancing the books can’t be just about financial costs, we have to measure the human costs.

4^th October 2010

TIME FOR A LIVING WAGE

It landed with an ominous thud on my desk, hundreds of pages of doom and gloom.

It was the briefing ‘notes’ for a finance seminar I attended with Scotland’s top economists, academics and number-crunchers.

They had pulled together to outline the hard choices facing politicians as we try to pick our way through these straightened financial times.

It posed many difficult questions but unfortunately give us very little in the way of answers as we enter into a dark period.

We need to think long term about what cuts are fair, what cuts are necessary to sustain services and what cuts will only lead to more pain in the long run.

In responding to these difficult challenges, we must ensure that the sick, the elderly and the working poor do not pay the highest price.

That is why I welcomed the announcement this week that Labour leader Iain Gray is supporting the living wage campaign for workers on low pay.

At the same time, there was a pledge to introduce pay restraint for the highest earners in the public sector.

It isn’t fair that there people have to survive on low pay while top earners enjoy generous bonuses.

Nearly half a million workers in both the private and public sector earn less than the Scottish Living Wage of £7.15 per hour while bankers get extravagant add-ons and nearly 1,000 public servants earn more than the Prime Minister.

We have a difficult task in tackling the many challenges that face us but we have to ensure that fairness is at the heart of these decisions.

27^th September 2010

DROWNING SORROWS

The Scottish Government was left drowning their sorrows this week after another of its flagship policies floundered on the rocks.

Plans to hike up the price of alcohol fell by the wayside this week but the debate on how to tackle Scotland’s battle with the booze rages on.

The proposals to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol were ill-thought out, unpopular and possibly illegal.

The cross-party health committee rejected them out of hand and I expect the parliament to reach the same verdict when the bill is considered later this year.

While the minimum pricing proposals found some favour with doctors and police chiefs, moderate drinkers were left asking why they were being punished for the mistakes of others.

And even the so-called experts were forced to admit that the impact on the hardened drinkers we should be focussing on was marginal.

I agree that action has to be taken to curb the devastating impact alcohol has on Scottish life and the current toll on our hospitals and courts cannot be sustained

But I don’t accept that banning people from buying the Marks and Spencers meal deal is the way to tackle it.

All it would achieve is setting a new ‘cheap’ for those determined to keep abusing alcohol and prevent people living on low incomes or fixed pensions from enjoying a social drink.

At the same time, supermarkets and retailers would enjoy a £140 million windfall while the taxpayer gets nothing.

A good start would be enforcing the laws we already had to stop alcohol getting into the hands of young people and penalising the unscrupulous shopkeepers.

And we need to work across advertising, licensing, criminal justice, social work, healthcare and education to change Scotland’s drinking culture.

It might not get the SNP government in Edinburgh its big headline but it could just mean Scotland wins its battle with the bottle.

20th September 2010

A PRICE TOO HIGH

 Unemployment is a price worth paying, a Tory chancellor once claimed.

 As a community, we know how wrong those words proved to be as a generation of young people paid a very high price for the economic vandalism of that government.

 With a Tory Chancellor in Downing Street once again, and a global recession to use as cover for the cuts agenda, we have to ensure the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated.

 For Scotland, that battle to protect our communities from the Tory cuts begins at the Scottish Parliament.

 But disappointingly, the SNP Government in Edinburgh has been found wanting in the fight to save Scottish jobs.

 Figures this week show that unemployment in the last quarter grew in Scotland by 25,000 at a time when it fell across the UK.

 Construction workers, nurses and teachers have all lost out to the Scottish Government’s broken promises.

 And this all comes before George Osborne announces his swingeing cuts from Westminster, which will be tantamount to an assault on public services and jobs.

 That is why the Scottish Government has to put jobs top of its priority list.

 They can do that by taking on the Tories and helping to make the case for the aircraft carriers to be built in Govan and Rosyth, preserving thousands of jobs in the shipbuilding industry here in Inverclyde.

 They can do that by kick-starting spending on building projects like the Glasgow Airport Rail Link that will create jobs in the construction industry.

 And they can do that by getting to grips with our health and education services and create opportunities for would-be teachers and nurses who are currently unemployed.

13th September 2009
Honest and fair

The opening shots were fired this week in what promises to be a momentous few months at the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government’s announced this week its legislative programme, which was notably light in substance.

There were bills in there though to end the double jeopardy rule, protect people from forced marriages and legislate against rogue landlords but the main talking point is the budget and the hard decisions that have to be made.

Disappointingly, the Scottish Government framed its argument to deal with the job threat with talk of tax-raising powers, fiscal autonomy and independence.

But people know that tax-raising powers didn’t help Iceland, Greece and Ireland through the global recession and its terrible consequences were felt by the ordinary people in these countries.

The people of Inverclyde are prepared for the worst, they have seen the Scottish Government’s cuts to teacher and nurses and have been well warned about the cuts about to be imposed by the Con-Dem coalition at Westminster.

Sadly, that message is all too familiar for a community like ours that is still recovering from the Thatcher years.

Inevitably it seems, even the lowest paid face pay freezes and job losses, bringing a negative impact on people, families and communities.

Indiscriminate cuts across the boards will hit hardest in areas like ours, which already has a high level of unemployment, low pay and a reliance on the public sector for jobs.

I made this point to the Finance Secretary John Swinney and he claimed he would address this in his budget process.

It is my job to make sure he does that and ensure we are protected from the worst that it is to come.

It is not honest to claim that tax-raising powers or independence would save us from the cuts and its certainly not fair that the poorest should pay the highest price.

September 6th, 2010

People’s Parliament?
The Scottish Parliament opened in 2004 with an ambition to be more accountable and accessible to the people it serves.

In order to bring forward Scottish solutions to Scottish problems, we believed that we had to be closer to the Scottish people we serve and better understand their lives.

People certainly know where the parliament is, with 2.5 million visitors in the last 10 years, more than 1300 petitions lodged and more than 10,000 telephone enquiries every year.

If success is measured in statistics, at has already went some way to meet that ambition but for me, Inverclyde has a walking, talking testament to that principle.

John Muir, grieving the senseless loss of his son to knife crime, walked into my parliamentary office in January 2008, determined to change the law to prevent other families going through what he did.

That set him off on a journey that put him at the centre of Scotland’s political debate.

Within a year, he was appearing before the Public Petitions Committee, representing the thousands who had signed up to his anti-knife crusade, and led an unprecedented summit in the chamber looking into the scourge of knife crime.

That started in motion a train of events that led to an amendment, based on the principles of Damian’s Law, going before MSPs and being cruelly defeated by just two votes.

Although unsuccessful for now, that campaign proved that any person, with the right issue and the backing of the community, could influence the political process through the Scottish Parliament.

Inverclyde, literally, came to the parliament that day, and, in one sense, the parliament makes the return journey this week.

This month, Greenock Central Library is hosting the Moving Stories Exhibition, which demonstrates the experiences of 10 people interacting with the Scottish Parliament.

I was able to speak at the launch of the event on Saturday and was joined by John, who is of course one of those featured in the exhibition.

In many ways, Holyrood can boast to be the people’s parliament. But it can only truly lay claim to that title if its politicians listen to the people they serve.

September 6th, 2010

25^th October 2010

PROTECTING SCOTLAND

At the Scottish Parliament, it is usually me who gets to put people on the spot with difficult questions, either in the chamber or the committees.

But the shoe was on the other foot during a recent visit to Gourock High, where the modern studies pupils got to ask me about my job as an MSP and politics in general.

From Afghanistan to Gamu in X Factor, it was fascinating to get their insight into the political issues of the day.

Of course, we are told they are the generation who are least interested in politics, even though they have the most to lose from the decisions that are taken later this week.

Chancellor George Osborne will announce on Wednesday his Comprehensive Spending Review and, after weeks and months of speculation, we will find out exactly where his axe will fall.

For young people, there promises to be little good news and uncomfortable question marks will hang over their future prospects.

For those who want to go to college, will there be places for them as funding for further education shrinks? For those hoping to go to university, how much will it cost?

For those wanting to learn the skills of a trade, will there be support for apprenticeships as the public sector and small businesses are squeezed? And for would-be teachers and nurses, what prospects for their careers against a background of cuts already biting in our health and educations services thanks to the Scottish Government in Edinburgh?

We don’t have to look too far in the past to see how young people suffer when a an indiscriminate and short-sighted approach is taken to dealing with an economic recession.

In the Thatcher years, the government were quick to consign a generation to the employment scrapheap and communities like ours have been trying to repair the damage ever since.

We must ensure this government is not allowed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

While its necessary to balance the books by repaying the debts of the past, we can afford to stop investing in the future.

Monday 16^th August 2010

RIGHT TO WORK

A great man may have passed away this week but the values he fought for have never been more important.

I was fortunate enough to spend time with Jimmy Reid and as a young shop steward in the shipyards he was an inspiration.

He believed that decent hard-working people had the right to work and was prepared to take on – and beat – those at the very top to make this point.

The stand that he and the other workers took saved thousands of jobs and gave hundreds of young people who followed opportunities into work.

Times have changed since then but many of the challenges remain the same.

Just this week, figures by the STUC revealed that the number of young people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance has increased by a third.

Government cuts here in Scotland mean that just one in 10 probationary teachers are being offered full-time jobs.

In our hospitals, newly-qualified nurses and midwives are being frozen out of their chosen profession due to cuts already being made to the health budget.

The Futures Job Fund – a job creation scheme that has given opportunities to more than 200 young people here in Inverclyde – is to be axed next year with nothing in its place.

Even those hoping to go on to university have found that places all taken up, particularly for those who didn’t get the results they were expecting.

Despite the best of efforts of men like Jimmy Reid in taking on the Tory goverment, the shipyards and other big employers did close and consigned a generation of young people to the unemployment scrapheap.

It caused serious damage to communities like ours but we came through the other side.

Yet again, we face tough economic times and it is vital that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

That means creating opportunities for the young people of Inverclyde and Scotland and ensuring they don’t pay the price for the actions of greedy bankers.

Monday 16th Augu

Monday 9^th August 2010

DIAGNOSIS BY GOOGLE

It seems there is nothing you can’t do these days with a click of your mouse and a broadband connection.

Reading the newspapers, checking in for your flight or doing your weekly shop, the internet has opened up a world of conveniences.

So it is no surprise that the NHS is getting in on the act with a website launch this week.

With the budget pressures on the health service, Nicola Sturgeon was criticised for spending £550,000 on the website, offers ‘non-urgent’ health information.

With much of the information contained elsewhere on the web, I was left asking the question who exactly is this website for?

People today are so empowered that Google has become their first point of diagnosis and they can choose from a whole range of remedies that can be bought over the whole counter.

As a result, their expectations are far higher.

For instance, why shouldn’t people be able to book an appointment with a GP at a time of their choice, just like you would with a restaurant or theatre booking.

Why shouldn’t blood test results be e-mailed to people rather than an anxious wait at the health centre.

And why do people have to hang around on the phone for a repeat prescription when a click of a button could do the job.

The lack of ambition in these health websites was highlighted by a report just this week, which insisted they were failing patients.

The Scottish Government talks a good game about putting patients first, but a thoughtless website like this is no good to someone without a computer, and probably no good to someone who has.

If the health secretary continues to waste cash like this, at a time when jobs and services are being cut here in Inverclyde, it won’t be just health information that is on line.

It will be her job on the line.