Punch and Judy
December 19th, 2011
PUNCH AND JUDY
Anyone looking for the usual Punch and Judy Show at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday morning would have been bitterly disappointed.
Instead of the usual fights in a debate about elderly care services, a spirit of consensus broke out as the Scottish Government adopted Labour’s idea of integrating health and social care budgets and it was backed by all the parties.
This is an attempt to tackle the pass-the-parcel approach to elderly care that leaves people waiting in hospital beds or sent home without the proper support in place.
But like any reform, the challenge will be in the implementation and we will have to work together to ensure this works in the interests of the people who rely on this care.
That mood of consensus was in stark contrast to the debate on sectarianism the day before.
In bringing forward new laws intended to punish offensive behaviour, the Scottish Government achieved something thought impossible, uniting Rangers and Celtic fans, the churches and the academics and political commentators against their approach.
Rather than listen and build a consensus, the SNP used their majority to force through these laws.
With power comes great responsibility, and the test for this legislation now will be the impact it has on sectarianism, for better or worse.
We also had unemployment figures, which saw a worrying rise again here in Inverclyde.
It means the Scottish Government’s so-called Plan B isn’t working and the cuts to the URC among other things make the task of attracting jobs and businesses even tougher.
Whether it’s reforming social care, tackling sectarianism and creating jobs, there are always lots of good intentions.
So as the parliamentary year draws to a close, we need more than warm words and rhetoric to take on the challenges facing Scotland.
Renewables Bid
12th December 2011
Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil has called on the Scottish Government to assist Inverclyde’s bid for green manufacturing jobs.
On the back of poor unemployment figures across Scotland, the MSP quizzed Enterprise Minister Fergus Ewing over plans to use Inchgreen dry dock as renewables manufacturing base.
He also asked the minister to consider Inverclyde as a possible enterprise area when they are announced in the New Year.
He said: “With unemployment increasing all over Scotland, we need to play to our strengths in Inverclyde and make the case for investment in our area.
“We have the skills and the infrastructure to play our part in the renewables industry but we will need support if we are to make it happen.
“The introduction of enterprise areas provides one opportunity to give us an edge in this market and I have asked the Scottish Government to consider Inverclyde.
“It is only fair that communities like ours which suffer disproportionately from the cuts receive the investment and support needed to tackle the scourge of unemployment.”
Working Togetheir
5TH December 2011
WORKING TOGETHEIR
It has been a fractious week in politics, and this time it spilled on to the streets.
Around 300,000 workers took to the picket lines in protest at the public service cuts, angered by a UK Government they feel has betrayed them.
Pay freezes, cuts to services and jobs, recruitment freezes and now pension reforms have been too much for workers who are now being told to expect the pain of the economic downturn to last longer than expected.
I spent some time going round the picket lines and the sense of frustration was palpable for many of them.
It sparked the usual blame game in Holyrood and Westminster, as the political parties tried to shift the focus on to each other – the truth is they are both to blame.
For those watching from outside, it would have done little to cheer those on strike on a cold and rainy day.
Yet buried among those fall-outs and protests was some good parliamentary work, across party lines, that I believe could make life better for some of the most vulnerable in our community.
As convener of the health committee, I worked with SNP and Tory colleagues to conduct an inquiry into the regulation of care of elderly.
I am sure many of us will have experience, whether it be your grandparents, or your mum or dad, or even an elderly friend of relative, where gaps in the care system have let them down.
This week, we produced a cross-party report that challenged some of those failures and pointed out some ways we can address the complex needs of our ageing population.
Our report found that fundamental to that ambition is ensuring dignity for our elders and respect for those who provide that care by giving them the training, skills and pay that go with such a demanding job.
It is something we can’t afford to get wrong.
A campaign lost
November 28th, 2011
A CAMPAIGN LOST
Better to have campaigned and lost, than never to have campaigned at all.
But the decision by the UK Government this week to close the coastguard centre was a sad one for Inverclyde, and one that I hope the Shipping Minister Mike Penning does not come to regret.
For many people, it took for the threat of closure before they realised the important work, and indeed the wide range of work, that our coastguards do.
Those workers at the Clyde Coastguard Centre, proud of the work they do, the knowledge and skills they have acquired and lives they have saved, have approached this adversity with great dignity.
They put forward a compelling and forensic case for the retention of the Clyde Coastguard, exposing the myths and the political posturing at the heart of this decision.
It was a campaign that united political parties and communities, working across rivalries and boundaries to take on this serious threat.
Sadly, it was in vain, as confirmed this week.
We know move on a difficult stage, one of vigilance, where we monitor this new system that insists it can keep safe the longest coastline in the UK remotely from Belfast.
I remain to be convinced, as do the experts at the Clyde Coastguard centre that this is unachievable, and the necessary stress tests have been carried out.
I take no satisfaction from saying I was right when I said this was a sham consultation and that the UK Government were intent on forcing through this cost-cutting exercise.
I only hope they are proved right and a health or environmental disaster is not a consequence of this decision.
If this gamble does not pay off, there will be serious repercussion for those who put cost-cutting over safety.
Sweet and Sour
7TH November 2011
At worst it has been disappointing at best it has been inconsistent.
I warned at the outset of this financial crisis that communities like Inverclyde would be impacted harder than anywhere else.
It meant we had to be afforded greater protection from the Scottish Government and would have to push to the front of the queue when jobs plans were being put together.
So I was delighted that Fergusons will once again be in the shipbuilding business, fighting off six other shipyards from across the globe to win an important contract making hybrid ferry vessels.
It will allow them to retain the skilled workforce that has kept the yard going over the last few lean years and allow them to bring in apprentices for future contracts.
On the back of Waterloo Road announcement last week, it was a welcome and much-needed jobs boost.
But as ever with this government, with the sweet comes the sour.
Our long-term ambitions to regenerate our community by building new homes and attracting jobs and business to the area have been taken forward by the Riverside Inverclyde project.
We quickly learned that the Scottish Government didn’t share those ambitions when they brutally cut our regeneration budget by 70 per cent last year.
And if it was any doubt, they admitted this week they are pulling the plug on the successful initiative altogether, leaving an uncertain future for the regeneration Inverclyde.
I feared the worst when I saw enterprise money being directed to Dundee and Nigg recently, and confirming Inverclyde is not a priority.
With this government, they give with one hand, take with the other.
Clyde Coastguard
September 28th, 2011
Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil led a delegation to meet the First Minister to discuss the UK Government’s plans to close the Clyde Coastguard and centralise services at Belfast.
The MSP met with Alex Salmond at Bute House to gain support to overturn ‘dangerous’ decision.
Mr McNeil was joined by Stuart Atkinson and four other Maritime and Coastguard Agency reps (Calum Murray, Irene Reid and Jacqui Lewis, Joy Dunn, from the Public and Commercial Services Union, and John Mundell, chief executive of Inverclyde Council. Nine other neighbouring local authorities have signed up to the campaign.
The meeting will inform the Scottish Government’s representations to the on-going consultation into the modernisation of the coastguard services, which ends next Friday.
Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, said: “We have been working across party lines and community boundaries to build a strong coalition against this reckless decision.
“The Clyde Coastguard serves the largest area of coastline in the UK, is the busiest station in Scotland and helps safeguard cargo, ferry and even MOD traffic – it makes no sense to close this centre and politics and cost-cutting have been put before safety.
“Now that we have the support of the First Minister, I hope that we can make the UK Government think again over these dangerous cuts.”
Clyde Coastguard
September 28th, 2011
Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil led a delegation to meet the First Minister to discuss the UK Government’s plans to close the Clyde Coastguard and centralise services at Belfast.
The MSP met with Alex Salmond at Bute House to gain support to overturn ‘dangerous’ decision.
Mr McNeil was joined by Stuart Atkinson and four other Maritime and Coastguard Agency reps (Calum Murray, Irene Reid and Jacqui Lewis, Joy Dunn, from the Public and Commercial Services Union, and John Mundell, chief executive of Inverclyde Council. Nine other neighbouring local authorities have signed up to the campaign.
The meeting will inform the Scottish Government’s representations to the on-going consultation into the modernisation of the coastguard services, which ends next Friday.
Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, said: “We have been working across party lines and community boundaries to build a strong coalition against this reckless decision.
“The Clyde Coastguard serves the largest area of coastline in the UK, is the busiest station in Scotland and helps safeguard cargo, ferry and even MOD traffic – it makes no sense to close this centre and politics and cost-cutting have been put before safety.
“Now that we have the support of the First Minister, I hope that we can make the UK Government think again over these dangerous cuts.”
College Merger
September 21st, 2011
Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil has expressed concern at plans to merge James Watt College with Reid Kerr in Paisley.
Education secretary Mike Russell revealed he is to set up regional clusters of college through forced mergers and has put an amalgamation of James Watt and Reid Kerr on his agenda.
They are to form the new west region under the controversial shake-up.
The local MSP fears that local decisions on funding and course provision will be taken in Paisley.
He said: “The James Watt College has been at the heart of this community for many years, helping people from Inverclyde gain the skills to get their first job or their next job.
“I have very real fears that this distinct identity which has been established at the James Watt over many years will be threatened by a forced merger.
“Rather than simply cutting costs, the Scottish Government must working with colleges like James Watt to find the best way of allowing people the opportunity to learn and develop new skills.”
Future funding for Riverside Inverclyde
September 19th, 2011
Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil has expressed his disappointment that Finance Secretary John Swinney failed again to give assurances about future funding for Riverside Inverclyde.
Mr McNeil had asked the minister during a debate on enterprise zones whether Inverclyde would be considered and would they complement the existing work for URCs.
The Scottish Government slashed Riverside Inverclyde’s budget by 60 per cent earlier this year and has failed to give any commitment to future funding despite only being half way through a 10-year project.
He now fears Inverclyde could face another round of regeneration cuts.
Mr McNeil said: “This project is vital to our future economic prospects and has been a real concern that the Scottish Government does not share our ambitions for Inverclyde.
“With the shift to enterprise zones in other parts of the country, I would have hoped that John Swinney would have assured us this would have no impact on our plans and given Inverclyde a firm commitment over the future of our regeneration plans.
“In Inverclyde, we remember the last enterprise zone introduced by the Thatcher government, and it had not last impact as unscrupulous companies moved on after the subsidy ran out.”
“Rather than repeat the mistakes of the past, the Scottish Government should be supporting regeneration projects that are working for communities like Inverclyde.”
Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab): I would expect a place such as Inverclyde to be high on the cabinet secretary’s priority list. Can he assure us that the enterprise zone work that the Government is going to carry out will be in addition to; supportive of and complementary to the existing work of the urban regeneration companies in such areas rather than to its detriment?
John Swinney: All the approaches that we have had about enterprise zones will be assessed dispassionately to determine how the maximum economic impact can be achieved. Support is being directed to different parts of the country in different ways. Mr McNeil has asked questions about urban regeneration company issues on a number of occasions in the past. I point out, in passing, that he was unable to support the provisions in the budget that supported the urban regeneration company in Inverclyde, but that is history. I assure him that the Government’s approach will be to look dispassionately at the opportunities to strengthen economic impact in all parts of the country.