I WAS amused to see Labour and the Tories combining to defeat the SNP government on their demand to introduce free school meals in Scotland.
I thought back to the early days of the Scottish Parliament when I was Tommy Sheridan’s press officer.
Tommy, who had successfully introduced the first private member’s bill to abolish warrant sales, introduced a bill to provide free school meals to all Scottish school pupils. We commissioned research which supported the idea, we had the advice and support of the former chief public health officers of England and Scotland.
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We had the support of the trade union movement, including the education trade unions, and we had more than 70% public opinion support, including among Tory voters. BBC Scotland did a special programme on free school meals in Finland, which showed the policy it had transformed health outcomes in the nation.
Yet when it came to the parliament I watched Jackie Baillie for Labour say words to the effect of “We oppose this, it’s universalism we don’t believe in that any more”! Brian Monteith for the Tories responded along the lines of “We don’t agree with universalism either so we are opposing it too.” The Liberals also opposed it – only the SNP supported Tommy’s bill and it duly fell.
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So forgive me if I’m a little sceptical of the vote on Wednesday. We know that the Tories and Labour in England have failed to introduce free school meals when in power there, and given Starmer’s Labour early attacks on pensioners I wouldn’t hold out any hope of it happening soon in England.
The truth is Labour and the Tories yesterday engaged in blatant hypocrisy and Scotland will only get the chance to control its own economic and social policy when its independent. Given the recent failures of the SNP, that looks to be some way off.
Hugh Kerr
Edinburgh
THE framing of news is important, and often critical to people’s understanding of current events. When BBC Scotland programme directors decided to equate, in both their news and current affairs outputs (September 11), the SNP Scottish Government’s pause in the roll-out of free school meals to primary school children with the Labour UK Government’s withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment from most pensioners, it was not only misleading framing but brought further into question the BBC’s political impartiality and professional standards.
Scotland is leading the UK in universal free school meal provision and while it is disappointing that those in primaries six and seven who are not eligible for Scotland’s unique “Child Payment” will have to wait a bit longer to take advantage of this particular benefit, it is not a “loss” of an existing benefit as was presented, unlike the Winter Fuel Payment. Also, unlike the Labour UK Government, the SNP Scottish Government is working under significant economic and fiscal restraints that greatly reduce its options available for increasing taxes or reducing public expenditure.
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Furthermore, a substantial portion of the additional costs that the SNP Scottish Government has effectively been compelled to accommodate have arisen from pay settlements with public-service unions that the Labour Party in Scotland has tacitly supported (and now appears to hypocritically condemn) and the reduction by the Labour UK Government in the funding for the universal provision of the Winter Fuel Payment (effectively backed by every Scottish Labour MP in spite of denial by Anas Sarwar of increasing austerity under a Labour government).
Poor framing and absence of relevant context in BBC Scotland reporting and discussion is betraying all viewers in Scotland, irrespective of political affiliations or constitutional persuasion.
Disappointingly, even supposed supporters of independence appear to be regularly “duped” by the way Scottish political news is framed, and not coincidentally some letters to The National subjectively attacking the SNP seem to mirror those presented throughout the pro-Union media.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
THERE is an urgent need to vote for yet another SNP government at the next Scottish election.
“Why?” you might ask? “Well,” I might suggest, “if only to prevent Anas Sarwar from becoming First Minister”. This has been predicted by a few polling experts.
However, we still need the SNP to put an eventual independent Scotland into effect once we have voted for it in a future referendum. This is the only way. We do not need Westminster’s permission and, quite honestly, never have done. But previous SNP governments chose to go down that road for whatever reasons which, to date, have been abject failures.
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In the meantime, let’s get Scotland’s priorities in the right place now that the Tories are out of commission, thanks to all those who voted for the new Labour Party government. In Scotland we should be concerned more with our own future, without the need for another English government telling us what we cannot do. Let’s keep Labour out of any chance whatsoever of being in that position of getting rid of all our social policies, by simply voting “SNP number one”.
We do not need to split the vote here by voting for a different independence party. This happened last time by those who voted for other independence parties as well as those who voted Labour.
If you stayed at home and did not bother to vote, look where that has left us. Stuck with a very large Labour Party majority and a nil majority SNP government. So let’s all get out when our turn comes and put right what should have happened last time, “Vote SNP but vote SNP number one!”
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
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