Tag: lobby

Young climate activists protest at Labour MP’s Edinburgh office

Promise to continue every week ‘Until Bold Action Is Taken’

On Friday, local climate activists from Green New Deal Rising staged a ‘sit-out’ in front of Ian Murray MP’s HQ to demand bolder climate commitments from Labour ahead of the next General Election. 

Beginning at 11am on Friday, young climate activists in Edinburgh gathered outside Ian Murray MP’s constituency office in Causewayside, urging him to commit to doing more in the face of the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

The group criticised the Labour Party’s failure to adequately respond to repeated calls from young people for rapid decarbonisation, a just transition to a low emissions economy and investment in green jobs.

Ian Murray is MP for Edinburgh South and the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in Keir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet.

This action follows similar protests every Friday since 14th July. This week, the activists staged a “birthday party” for Keir Starmer outside the office, putting up decorations, playing party songs and sharing around cake to mark the Labour leader’s birthday this week.

They spoke to Ian Murray’s constituents and members of the public about what the Labour party could be doing to tackle the climate emergency and social and economic injustice.

The protest was part of a national campaign by Green New Deal Rising pressuring the Labour Party to ‘Be Bold’ in their manifesto pledges ahead of the next UK General Election, which must be held before December 2024.

They are demanding that the Labour Party commit to passing legislation which expands public ownership, taxes wealth, delivers a green jobs guarantee and a living income, enacts a National Nature Service and make polluters pay globally, in the first 100 days after the election. 

Similar protests were also staged in cities across the UK targeting other members of the Shadow Cabinet.

Paris, 20, a member of Green New Deal Rising from Glasgow said: “We are seeing unprecedented heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods, crop failures, famines and falling living standards.

“Labour are refusing to put in place the bold and systemic solutions required to put an end to these crises, with the party having just ruled out wealth taxes and having reaffirmed their support for a set of dangerous and arbitrary fiscal rules that top economists have said are morally and fiscally irresponsible.

“So we are back outside Ian Murray’s office for the 8th week chatting with the public and throwing a birthday party for Keir Starmer celebrating what Labour could achieve if they grant our wishes of having a livable future through public ownership of essential services, a secure income for all, and a transformative Green New Deal.”

Keir Starmer announced Labour’s ‘Green Industrial Strategy’ earlier this year, but has already U-turned on a number of issues in response to fossil fuel lobbying, by refusing to block the Rosebank Oil Field if approved and delaying the timing of green investment.

Polls consistently show that the electorate are in favour of more action on environmental issues as well as public ownership.

Paris continued: “Our wishes are highly reflected in our interactions with the public who are concerned about the destruction of our planet and deteriorating living standards. Labour need to reject austerity economics and support our demands for a Green New Deal.”

The group say they will return to Ian Murray’s office again next Friday.

Save Our Care Homes: protest lobby at City Chambers tomorrow

UNISON will be holding a static lobby outside the Edinburgh City Chambers tomorrow (Tuesday 17th August) from 9.30am to coincide with the meeting of the Edinburgh Integrated Joint Board (EIJB) meeting taking place at 10am.

Although this meeting will not be making a final decision on care home closures, they will be planning to move forward with wider consultation on the issue, with the purpose of coming to a decision at a meeting in September.

It was UNISON’s quick actions that ensured the EIJB did not move forward with the proposed closures at their meeting on 22nd June 2021.

UNISON will be making a deputation to the meeting tomorrow and will be calling for:

  • the saving of our care homes;
  • meaningful engagement with the trade unions;
  • call for proper impact assessments; and
  • the need to have a wide-ranging meaningful public consultation.

UNISON want care homes to remain run by and for the public and not run by private companies for private profit.

If publicly owned and run care homes are not up to standard, then investment in adaptation, or the building of new care homes must be done to ensure that any demand can be met.

Staff in care home must be paid a decent wage, have access to developmental training and feel secure in their employment.

The lobby outside the City Chambers on Tuesday 17th August is only part of the union’s campaign to ‘Save Our Care Homes’ and UNISON plan to build to a bigger event for the September meeting.

You can sign UNISON’s petition here and click here for a link to a ready-made email to your MSP.

The Another Edinburgh is Possible campaign group is also urging the capital’s citizens to support the fight against care home closures:

‘Join the protest rally outside the City Chambers as the Edinburgh Integrated Joint Board meets on Tuesday 17th August. It’s likely that the board will hold a special meeting in September to make the decision to close 5 out of the 9 local authority care homes in Edinburgh.

‘We want to build a campaign that is so strong that when that meeting takes place the board has no option but to drop its’ closure plans. Three Edinburgh City Councillors sit on the board. We’ve written to the leaders of all five party groups on the council demanding that their group takes a clear and unambiguous public position in opposition to the closures.’

No more cuts to jobs and services

Invite to a meeting

The North Edinburgh and East Edinburgh Save Our Services campaigns are calling an online meeting on Thursday 10th September at 6.30pm.  The meeting will discuss how to mobilise opposition to the latest round of cuts in jobs and services. 

Register at

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0oceirrD0uGt0TO6s_SIKPshqmgVQVCeC4

It is time to end the cycle of cuts to vital local services in our city.  Austerity, outsourcing and privatisation has been pushed down from Westminster via Holyrood and implemented by the City Council for too long.  But we need a powerful campaign if we are to be successful.  

Since 2012/13, Edinburgh City Council budget cuts have amounted to £320 million. Prior to Covid19 the estimate was that there would be further cuts of £87.3 million by 2023. 

These cuts have had a terrible effect on essential services.  The most vulnerable, who have also been hit by cuts in social security benefits, have suffered most. Edinburgh has the lowest expenditure per capita on local services in Scotland.

The City Council’s press releases fail to reflect the reality of life for many of Edinburgh’s citizens.  Wrapped in the language of ‘savings’, ‘inclusion’, ‘progress’, ‘just recovery’ and ‘sustainability’, they accept that there is no alternative to an ideology that supports a relentless increase in inequality.

Covid19 has added to an already bleak picture with increases in unemployment, child poverty and mental distress.  The pandemic has shone a harsh light on the gaps in local services and underlined the importance of key workers and health, social care, housing and education.  

Edinburgh Council argues that falling revenues and increased costs as a result of Covid19 now mean that further cuts are required.  The Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, through which the Council and the NHS administer integrated health and social care, has already agreed cuts of £8 million.  

We understand that proposals for cuts will go the Finance Committee on 24th September and be considered at the full Council meeting on 15th October.

These cuts affect individuals, groups and organisations across the city.  They will further erode essential services and add to the numbers of unemployed.

The annual cuts in jobs and services that have taken place over the last decade have not gone unopposed.  On occasion we’ve been able to deflect specific measures.  But each year the screw has tightened.  

It is not true that there is no money to fund these services. The Westminster government is choosing to direct it to the big corporations.  For example, eleven billion pounds have gone to the private sector for a track and trace system in England that doesn’t work.  £600m was handed to Tesco in rate relief (that went straight to their shareholders) while the company is enjoying a sales bonanza.

This meeting can be a first step in building a mass campaign for social justice, push back the cuts and fight for public services. 

If our elected politicians wish to truly represent us, then they should join the campaign.  If not, they should step aside. Let’s save and rebuild services, save jobs and fight for social justice and an environmentally sustainable future.

‘Tip of the Iceberg’: local women to lobby Ruth Davidson in Roseburn

Young mothers from Royston Wardiburn’s ‘All Abut Me’ group and their supporters are to stage a protest outside Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson’s constituency office on Roseburn Terrace this morning. The women are protesting against changes to the benefits system that will see at least eleven local families – and 42 children – evicted from their homes. Continue reading ‘Tip of the Iceberg’: local women to lobby Ruth Davidson in Roseburn

Edinburgh’s budget: Transformation – or tragedy?

Councillors vote through £84.5 cuts package

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Frontline services for Edinburgh’s vulnerable, older and younger residents will be prioritised in the city council’s budget budget set yesterday. Finance convener Alisdair Rankin says the council aims to become a ‘leaner, more agile organisation’ but up to two thousand jobs will go, impacting on services across the city. 

The council says spending on schools, health and social care provision – seen as the services that matter most to Edinburgh residents – as well as improvements to roads, pavements and cycle routes, will be their spending priorities, and the administration plans to deliver them more efficiently and effectively.

Councillor Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “Like other local authorities around the country, we face the challenge of a rising demand for services while funding is reducing.

“That’s why we will focus on the services that matter the most to the public. I am confident that we have taken the needs of Edinburgh’s residents into account when setting this year’s budget and am delighted that more than 4000 people took the time to have their say on our draft budget proposals.”

Councillor Bill Cook, Vice-Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “Thanks to the feedback gained during the budget engagement process we have been able to make decisions such as maintaining the full in-house home care service and retaining lunch time crossing patrols at primary schools.”

Based on responses received during an 11-week consultation period, changes were made to the final budget reflecting the public’s needs. These include:

• Maintaining the night noise team
• Deciding against proposals to redesign day care services for adults with learning disabilities
• Removing the proposal to reduce community centre staff
• Maintaining lunch time school crossing patrols
• Amending the proposal to review support staff in special schools

This year the Council has a budget of £950m and will continue to deliver frontline services while making savings of £85.4m. These savings will be achieved through ‘workforce transformation’, cuts in fleet and selling off property.

While councillors listened to the public’s views during the budget consultation there was no move towards introducing a ‘Tourist Tax’ and they rejected appeals to defy the Scottish government by raising council tax. As a result, council tax band levels for Edinburgh in 2016/17 will once again remain unchanged:

A: £779.33
B: £909.22
C: £1,039.11
D: £1,169.00
E: £1,428.78
F: £1,688.56
G: £1,948.33
H: £2,338.00

A deputation from North Edinburgh was well to the fore during proceedings throughout the day, bringing some levity to what was otherwise a sombre occasion.

Dressed in black, Royston Wardieburn’s Power to the People adult education group staged a funeral procession to the City Chambers, led by the Grim Reaper, an undertaker, pall bearers and mourners lamenting the death of council services.

Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre is one of many voluntary sector organisations facing an uncertain future. A contingent from Drylaw joined the lobby and supporter Lesley Yardley (below, left) spoke to reporters before the meeting about how cuts are affecting hard-hit communities.

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She said: “Our Neighbourhood Centre caters for people of all ages – from babies and toddlers right up to people in their nineties. The Centre’s full every day. Pensioners get picked up by our community bus and brought in to the centre. Without that Centre many of these people would be on their own; they would just sit at home and fade away. Communities need community centres.”

The deputation also brought music into the council chamber, with speakers Willie Black and Anna Hutchison – was there ever a more unlikely Renee and Renato? –  leading the North Edinburgh chorus in a rousing – if melancholic – version of Bella Ciao.

Ultimately, however, the serenade failed to melt the heart of Edinburgh’s councillors and by late afternoon the die was cast: councillors voted through the Capital Coalition’s budget. Yes, these were some small victories but communities across the city will feel the impact of cuts of this scale. You can’t lose that many jobs without affecting services.

Yesterday’s visit by the Grim Reaper was premature and council services are not dead yet: but with three more years of cuts to come they are surely in a critical condition. Edinburgh’s heady days of  ‘Improving Services, Creating Jobs’ are well and truly over.

You can find out more about where the Council plans to spend and save in 2016/17, and where changes have been made following Budget engagement, on the Council website.

More pictures below and on our Facebook page – our thanks to Lynn McCabe

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UNITE to fight ‘silent slaughter’

‘Once again it is the low paid and vulnerable – including children, elderly and disabled people – who will be the worst affected by these cuts’ – Amanda Kerr, UNISONlobby

The Edinburgh branch of public service union UNISON will lobby the City of Edinburgh Council budget meeting tomorrow from 08.45-9.45 against 2,000 job losses and £160 million in cuts to services over four years. Continue reading UNITE to fight ‘silent slaughter’