For the past 15 years as Deputy First Minister then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon has been a very able politician, a skilled communicator, and a passionate advocate for a separate Scotland. While I disagree with her politically on most topics, as a fellow human being
For the past 15 years Nicola Sturgeon and her predecessor have been responsible for cutting funding to local government for essential services, and ring-fencing what little money they do give to Falkirk and other local authorities.
The result - locally elected representatives cannot properly protect local communities. The SNP in Holyrood are clearly afraid of local government, and with good reason. Even local authorities under SNP control have started to challenge Holyrood priorities in
Brave SNP-led authorities like Glasgow have started to challenge Holyrood. The Falkirk SNP administration simply bows down to Nicola, John Swinney and their cronies. When Holyrood says “cut” the SNP administration says “how much?”. When Holyrood says “cut but do not reduce teacher numbers or teaching hours” the Falkirk SNP administration says “OK we will remortgage the schools” and calls it Service Concessions. As if the SNP Scottish Government was being good to local authorities.
To be fair, every local authority in Scotland is being forced into this remortgaging process in order to pay for services and avoid redundancies. But make no mistake – these “concessions” are a form of borrowing that the people of the Falkirk Council area will be
And what do our local Conservatives do? So far they support every cut proposed. Time and again they vote with the SNP against Labour and the Independents when we put forward alternatives. The SNP appetite for more and more cuts sits happily
The result will be that our children will not be able to use their school swimming pools and local leisure centres, our local drama groups, choirs, musicians and others will have nowhere to rehearse and perform, our older people will not be able to get together over a cheap cup of tea at their local community centre, our vulnerable adults will not have adequate health and social care services, and our town and village centres will wither away.
Will a replacement First Minister result in a change in direction. Unlikely, but only time will tell.
Katie Hagman MSP has tweeted that Nicola has been an inspiration to women in politics. She certainly inspired me – to become a Labour politician and to do all I can to prevent the SNP from ripping the heart out of our communities.