Published: Wednesday, 7th May, 2008 12:00
SNP MSP's view on year in government
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From reading recent editions of the News it appears that local Labour politicians, ex-politicians, members and staffers are working a kind of rota system in terms of writing letters each week attacking the SNP Government in Holyrood and myself in particular. This time it was the turn of Councillor Gallagher.
The previous tactic of fabricating comments I have allegedly (but have not actually) made to deliberately mislead readers has once more reared its ugly head.
As always the tone is wholly negative, with the old, tired, fearful accusation that an Independent Scotland would be too poor and too wee to survive the looming recession brought on by the ineptitude of US and UK monetary policy. The SNP has more faith in the Scottish people and I have not noticed either of the prosperous nations Mr Gallagher castigates queuing up to surrender their sovereignty.
The claim that the SNP Government has done “nothing” in the last year is obviously nonsense. Councillor Gallagher criticises the SNP record on health in the same week a new £842 million state of the art children’s hospital based at the Southern General was announced and less than a month after we began the phased abolition of prescription charges. However, even if the SNP Government had sat around twiddling its thumbs for a year, it would still compare favourably with the bungling and inept Labour Government led by Gordon Brown at Westminster and Wendy “ten out of ten” Alexander’s stumbling opposition in Holyrood.
Most neutral observers will have noticed the huge difference between Alex Salmond’s deft and confident leadership in Holyrood, running a minority Government with only 47 out of 129 MSPs, and the woeful performance of the dithering, weak and rudderless Labour regime in London, with its 63 seat majority.
Northern Rock, Iraq, Post Office Closures, the Credit Crunch, losing 25 million social security records, hitting poorer households by abolishing the 10p rate of tax, etc., even among blinkered Labour fanatics like Councillor Gallagher, it must be clear the Brown Government is struggling desperately.
Grangemouth? Councillor Gallagher is clearly unaware of the strong level of co-operation between Scottish and London Ministers and their joint dedication to resolving this dispute. To say Scotland was “rescued” by the UK Government is laughable. The country simply imported more fuel, not just for Scotland, but the 20% of England supplied by Grangemouth. Confrontation? The SNP has made it clear that we are happy to co-operate with Westminster, the EU and anyone else where our interests coincide. Unlike Mr Gallagher, the SNP will also stand up for Scotland when they don’t. Sadly, he appears to loathe the very concept of Scotland and has neither faith nor trust in the good judgement of the Scottish people.
Kenneth Gibson, MSP
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Warnings aplenty... But is it fun anymore?