Tag Archives: Scottish Labour

13 August 2017

Education was supposed to be the number one priority for the SNP – but the numbers just don’t add up.

Since the SNP came to power, education has seen a smaller share of public spending, meaning that millions of pounds less has been spent on education than if the SNP had kept pace with Labour’s choices.

Under Labour, 13% of public spending was on the Education and Trainin budget. Under the SNP, that area has fallen to 11.8% of spending.

If the SNP had kept pace with Labour’s investment in Education and Training, it would have spent 13% or £75.6billion.

That means the SNP has spent £6.9 billion less over its period in office than if they had kept pace with the Labour years – or, on average,  £773 million a year less.

Meanwhile, there has been a huge fall in pupils sitting key subjects since Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister.

At Higher level, there has been:

• An 11 per cent drop in Chemistry
• A 14 per cent drop in Maths
• A 12 per cent drop in Physics

At National 5 level there has been:

• A 24 per cent drop in French
• A 26 per cent drop in German
• A 31 percent drop in Italian

These figures show that a lack of investment is cutting off opportunities for our young people.

This week, Labour’s summer campaign ‘For The Many’ turns to education with a back to school theme. We’ll outline ideas on how we would make Scottish education better.

Keep up with the campaign so far by clicking the image below:

 

read more

12 August 2017 Scotland can be a fairer, greener and better country, here are 15 things we would do to make Scotland greener. 1. Aspiring to generate 50 per cent of our electricity, heat and transport demand from renewables by 2030. 2. Str… read more

10 August 2017 

This is tax and spend, SNP style.

1.) The SNP’s proposal to cut the rate of Air Departure Tax by 50 per cent is estimated to cost as much as £189 million a year by the end of the Parliament.

2.) That is more than the SNP government’s attempt to deal with the education attainment gap, the pupil equity fund, which has a budget of £120 million.

3.) That’s against a backdrop of 4,000 fewer teachers, a teacher recruitment crisis falling literacy and numeracy standards.

4.)  The Scottish Government’s own analysis has shown, the effect of a cut in APD will be to increase air travel and associated greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50,000 tonnes.

It is time for Derek Mackay, the Finance Secretary, to drop this tax break for frequent flyers and instead focus on improving the lives of working families.

Our summer campaign, For The Many, is this week focused on making Scotland a greener country.

Read about our campaign by clicking on the image below:

read more

Scotland’s public transport system is a patchwork of services, with many areas left behind with no decent provision. Bus services are grinding to a halt and passenger numbers have declined by 78 million since 2007. Public money has been sip… read more

Labour would invest in a modern, integrated, accessible transport system that is reliable and affordable.   Our transport systems illustrate the abject failure of Tory policies; relentless deregulation, privatisation and fragmentation. In Sc… read more