Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged Prime Minister Theresa May to change course to avoid an “utterly disastrous” no-deal Brexit if the Prime Minister’s plans are rejected by MPs in a crunch vote on 11 December – but Theresa May says the First Minister should listen to Scotland’s business leaders. Continue reading May tells Sturgeon: “Listen to the voices”
Edinburgh North and Leith MP Deidre Brock has claimed that the UK’s Brexit plans are a threat to our food supply. Continue reading Deirdre Brock: UK’s Brexit plans a threat to our food supply
I was saddened to hear of the death of former local councillor Neil Lindsay on Friday. Continue reading Neil Lindsay
Continue reading It’s all about the Union as Edinburgh elects new council
After serving 33 years as a city councillor, Lesley Hinds has decided to not seek re-election in 2017. Below, she reflects on her political career and the difference Labour has made to Edinburgh over that time:
By May 2017 I will have been a Councillor for 33 years. But when I was selected to contest the Edinburgh Northern and Leith parliamentary seat, I made a private decision that it would be my last election. Therefore I will not be putting my name forward for the election for Edinburgh City Council in 2017. It’s maybe an appropriate time to reflect on my career since 1984.
After all this time in politics, I feel that I have done as much as I can and it is time for the next generation of change-makers to take over. I entered politics determined to make a difference – both in my local community and across Edinburgh – and I believe my record demonstrates that I have done just that.
Of course, while I made my personal contribution, I know I couldn’t have achieved as much as I did without the support of many, many people along the way, from the Party members who first selected me as a candidate and gave me a chance, to all the Labour Party activists who gave up their time to knock doors and deliver leaflets.
A large vote of thanks has to go to the many thousands of voters who have given me their endorsement at election after election (8). All my election agents (you know who you are) and the Council staff who have worked for me and given me support over the years. The community groups who have campaigned to make the lives of their communities better. The various Labour Groups I have been a member of and finally my family – without their support I couldn’t have done it. Collectively I believe we made a tremendous difference for the city and its citizens.
I was first elected for the Telford ward in 1984, beating the then Liberal Group leader. At the time I was a young mother with two small children, and this naturally gave me some concern. However, I was assured that Labour would be in opposition and I shouldn’t worry. How wrong we were.
Labour achieved an historic victory, winning outright control of the Council for the first time on a radical agenda of change. Anyone who was at the count at Meadowbank that night will remember just what a watershed moment it was. Today I am the very last of that group of councillors to still sit on the Council.
Edinburgh in 1984 was a very different place. It was a very divided city between rich and poor. It still is, but maybe less so. Following years of Conservative control, the city was crying out for change and investment in sports facilities, cultural facilities, housing and economic regeneration. As a party, we set out to improve services and create jobs – and we did it.
We established Edinburgh’s reputation as a dynamic, go-ahead city, attracting many talented officials. Some of the choices we made were controversial – the decision to establish a Women’s Committee was viewed quizzically at the time. But perhaps the committee reflected, not so much a choice to be ‘controversial’, but the make up of that first Labour Group, which had a significant number (but still less than a third of the Group) of very capable women in it. Some of my more ‘traditional’ colleagues dubbed us the ‘Knitting Circle’, which became a badge of honour for some, including the honorary male.
I have always been committed to the community I live in. I have served as a councillor for Telford, Drylaw, Muirhouse and now Inverleith, and I have played my part in achieving improvements in these areas. For example, the introduction of local community centres in Drylaw and Muirhouse; a new library and arts centre in Muirhouse; new and improved housing; new primary and secondary schools; a refurbished swim centre at Glenogle (threatened with closure at one point) and new parks are just some of our many achievements.
Ever since I was first elected I have held weekly surgeries and I am now the only councillor in the Inverleith ward to do so. After more than 30 years’ service, I believe I merit my reputation for being open, accountable, hard working and effective at driving change.
A lot of local politics takes place in the City Chambers, a place many of my family would now call my second home. So much so, my son chose to have his wedding there last year! And over 30-odd years in this building I have had several high-profile positions, which have afforded me the opportunity to make change. I have been the convener of the old General Purposes Committee, Leader of the Council, Convener of the Lothian Police Board, Lord Provost for four years, and I currently serve as the Convener of Transport and Environment.
Achievements over my time in office include: creating Edinburgh Marketing to establish Edinburgh’s position as a tourist destination; working with the Anti-apartheid movement (the woman and child statue on Lothian Road commemorates that time); the building of the EICC; the Zero Tolerance Campaign; the One City Trust; the incredibly successful Winter Festival; building several new libraries and sports centres; Make Poverty History; helping with the aftermath of the tsunami in Banda Aceh, and establishing the Edinburgh Award.
One of my proudest moments, however, was while in opposition. Working with others, we were able to prevent the privatisation of services for the care of vulnerable people, some of them severely disabled. This is one achievement that was truly appreciated by the local community.
Most recently I have been Convener of the Transport and Environment Committee, responsible for some of the most controversial areas of Council responsibility. After all, everyone has a view on refuse collection and the Trams!
Despite nine years of frozen Council Tax and reduced budgets, we have managed to achieve so much. The Tram project was finally completed on the revised timescale and budget, we massively increased the budget for cycling, recycling has increased and we have reduced the amount of waste going to landfill, Lothian Buses has remained in public ownership, we have set up a Transport Forum and an Active Travel Forum, the roads and pavement budget was doubled two years ago (I know it’s still not enough – tell the Scottish Government), and we have also set up Edinburgh Energy and the Edinburgh Community Solar Cooperative.
I have lived and worked in Edinburgh for almost 40 years now. It’s a city I can proudly call home, where I have brought up my three children (although one has escaped to Glasgow) and made friends for life. I was so pleased and grateful to receive personal recognition in the form of honorary degrees from city institutions such as Edinburgh University, the Royal College of Surgeons and Telford College. Looking back, it’s hard to recognise the city from the one I first moved to in 1979. Edinburgh is now an immeasurably better place to live and I’m proud to have played my part, alongside many others, in its success.
However, Edinburgh, and Scotland, faces unprecedented challenges, following the referendums in 2014 and this year. Local government, once responsible for so many crucial community services, has been squeezed remorselessly. Our future is uncertain. The Labour Party itself faces some difficult challenges. It will be up to the next generation of politicians to try to find a way through. For myself, I will still be around, but looking for new challenges. Onwards and upwards.
Thank you
Lesley
Drop-in sessions in Northern and Leith
Saturday 21st November
1pm – 2pm at OOTB, 36 Dalmeny Street, EH6 8RG
Saturday 28th November
12 -1pm Royston/Wardieburn Community Centre,11 Pilton Drive North, EH5 1N
![Mark_Lazarowicz[1]](https://i0.wp.com/nen.press/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Mark_Lazarowicz1.jpg?ssl=1)
I would like to thank all those who gave me their support in the general election held on 7 May. I was proud of the way we took our message to every street in every part of Edinburgh North & Leith, and although we were unsuccessful, I am sure that the efforts of our team were one of the reasons why I received more votes in 2015 than in the 2010 election.
I have been extremely privileged to have been able to serve the people of Edinburgh North & Leith as their representative in Parliament since 2001, and I thank them for giving me that opportunity.
I congratulate the successful candidate Deidre Brock on her victory. Like all MPs, she can be contacted at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, switchboard 0207 219 3000.
My constituency office will now close down, and as I am no longer an MP I will not be able to deal with any constituency work. However, Malcolm Chisholm MSP continues to have his constituency office at 5 Croall Place, Leith Walk and can be contacted for any Scottish Parliament matters in the Edinburgh Northern & Leith constituency.
Speaking in a debate at Westminster, Mark Lazarowicz MP highlighted the need for compensation to Equitable Life members to be increased and greatly speeded up to reflect the reality that many of those who lost out as a result of the maladministration are now advanced in age.
Speaking after the debate, he said: “Under the current scheme, the vast majority of Equitable Life policyholders will only receive less than a quarter – 22.4p in the £ – of what they lost after investing in what was to all appearances a safe, well-established and regulated scheme: it was anything but.
“I want to see the compensation properly reflect what all policyholders lost and be speeded up: the Government should act in the upcoming Budget.
“These were people who tried to make provision for their retirement and they should receive compensation while they can benefit from it: many who lost out have already died before receiving anything at all.
“This highlights why it’s also such a concern that the Government is so behind schedule in providing advice to people on how to make use of the new freedom to take some or all of their pension pot early.”
Even though official estimates of the losses suffered by policyholders at Equitable Life put the total figure at £4.3 billion, the Chancellor allocated only £1.5 billion in October 2010.
That has to cover the cost of administering the scheme and the £620m for full compensation to be paid to the 37,000 holders of with-profits annuities leaving the rest to be shared out amongst the remaining 945,000 policy holders.
Mark Lazarowicz’ contribution to the debate can be found here.
Mark Lazarowicz MP has joined Labour colleagues in giving a partial welcome to a Private Members’ Bill being debated today in the UK Parliament designed to exempt some people from the so-called ‘bedroom tax’.
The Housing Reform Act 2012 included the removal of the spare room subsidy, which means that social tenants can see their housing benefit cut severely where they are deemed to be occupying a property larger than they need.
The Bill is being introduced by Andrew George, LibDem MP for St Ives, and although committed to abolition of the bedroom tax the Labour Opposition is aiming to strengthen it as a step towards that.
The North and Leith MP said: “The Bill is welcome in so far as it goes in seeking to exempt some people hit by the bedroom tax and in encouraging the building of new affordable housing but the real answer is simple: scrap the bedroom tax as Labour is committed to do.
“This unfair and vicious policy has left vulnerable tenants like disabled people and their carers under threat of having to move and the Government has been forced to apply sticking plaster to the wound it has caused by increasing discretionary housing payments in dribs and drabs.
“It is all very well for some LibDem MPs to be calling for the bedroom tax to be modified to exempt them a few months before the UK General Election – if they had opposed it from the start, the government would not have been able to bring it in at all!
“The real answer to the desperate shortage of affordable housing is not to victimise existing social tenants but to tackle it at root by building more of it.”
North & Leith MP joins anti-bedroom tax protest
On the first anniversary of the introduction of the so-called ‘Bedroom Tax’, Mark Lazarowicz MP has reiterated the pledge that a future Labour government will scrap the legislation altogether. The Welfare Reform Act, to give it it’s proper name, has hit over 4,600 people in Edinburgh and over 71,000 people across Scotland.
Mr Lazarowicz spoke at a protest organised by Unite trade union outside Westminster to mark the anniversary earlier today.
The Scottish Labour and the SNP Scottish Government reached agreement in February over funding to protect tenants in the social rented sector in Scotland from eviction as a result of the Bedroom Tax alone but that is only an interim solution as the extra funding has to come from elsewhere in the overall budget.
Mark Lazarowicz MP said: “Getting on for 5,000 people in Edinburgh have been hit by this cruel and costly tax with arrears totalling £5 million according to the Scottish Housing Regulator.
“Those affected are often amongst the most vulnerable people in society: Citizens Advice Scotland found that two-thirds of people coming to them for help because of the Bedroom Tax were disabled and another one in ten cared for a disabled person.
“Scottish Labour took the lead in campaigning for the Scottish Government to provide additional funding, and I am glad that the SNP government eventually agreed to do so. It should have done so earlier, but I nevertheless welcome the fact that it did so. The long-term answer, however, is to axe the Bedroom Tax, and Labour is fully committed to do that.
“The Government said the Bedroom Tax would save money but the housing benefit bill continues to rise. It won’t listen to reason, Labour is clear: we will scrap the Bedroom Tax.”
