Referendum Bill is passed

The Bill to allow the people of Scotland to choose whether Scotland should be an independent country has been passed by Holyrood.

MSPs voted in favour of the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill following a final debate on the legislation this afternoon.
The Bill confirms that:

The people of Scotland will vote in a referendum on September 18^th next year on the question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
The vote will be run to the highest international standards and will be overseen by the independent Electoral Commission.
The vote will be preceded by a 16-week formal campaign period.
The referendum will be conducted under the direction of a Chief Counting Officer responsible for appointing local Counting Officers to run the poll in local areas.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said:

“This is a truly historic moment in Scotland’s national story. It means that in September next year the people of Scotland will be asked whether they want this country to be independent.

“This Government believes independence will benefit everyone in this nation, and that having decisions taken here by the people who live and work here will help us create a fairer and more prosperous society.

“Later this month, we will publish the White Paper on independence, outlining in great detail the benefits and opportunities of having decisions made here in Scotland, for Scotland.

“The Edinburgh Agreement confirmed that next September’s referendum should be legislated for by the Scottish Parliament and that it should be conducted so as to command the confidence of parliaments, governments and people.

“With today’s vote, Holyrood has fulfilled that objective. It is a strong message that, whatever our political differences, we have agreed the rules and the procedure to be followed in the referendum. “I hope we can continue in this spirit as we make our case for either outcome by committing to engage in a constructive and respectful debate.

“People want to know what the gains of independence will be for their families and communities. We already take decisions here on a wide range of devolved issues, and these have led to real gains for communities all across Scotland. Independence is the next logical step in Scotland’s Home Rule journey, and the passing of this Bill will allow people to have that choice.

“Independence is not about this administration but about the right of the people of Scotland to choose a Government of our own.”

Local MP backs Living Wage

This is Living Wage Week and Mark Lazarowicz MP has backed Labour’s plans to raise wages for thousands of low-paid workers in Edinburgh.

If the party wins power at the next General Election, Labour says it will introduce new tax breaks for employers that commit to paying the living wage – currently set at £7.65 in Scotland. As well as making sure work really pays, it will also help cut benefit bills through savings in lower tax credits and benefit payments.

The North and Leith MP (pictured below) said: “In-work poverty has risen sharply so that many families that are being forced to turn to food banks or take out pay-day loans actually have a wage coming in. It is simply wrong that almost 60% of children in poverty in the UK come from households where at least one person is working.

“I know there are already councils like the City Council here in Edinburgh and private employers as well who are doing the right thing by their staff and paying the living wage. I strongly support Ed Miliband’s plans to encourage more employers to do the same so that hard-working staff are treated decently and paid a fair wage.”

As well as the City of Edinburgh Council, Fife, East Lothian, Falkirk and Scottish Borders Councils have also committed to paying the living wage.

Under Labour’s plans, firms that commit to paying their employees the living wage in the first year of the next Parliament will be offered a 12 month tax rebate of up to £1,000 for each individual worker that receives a pay rise. The money would be funded directly from increased income tax and National Insurance revenues.

Letter: public services paying the price

Dear Editor

Wage increases restricted to 1% maximum. Price increases averaging 3%, with gas, electricity and rail fares rising even more. This is not a one-off, it is a policy continuation over the last three years. Every working person is feeling the pinch, more so those on low incomes – in very many households the question of heating the home is decided by how much cold one can stand first.

Passing the cost of the colossal greed and mismanagement by the banks and financial institutions onto the people is bordering on criminal – especially as huge salaries and bonuses are still being paid to the people at the top, Their political supporters have been very busy making sure the people pay, but that is not enough for them.

They have also seized the chance to break up, privatise and destroy as many public services as possible – the very services, both local and national, that are needed more than ever. These services have been struggled for and paid for in taxation; they haven’t been given to us, this begs the question: how has the Tory/Lib government been able to do so much harm to so many?

First, any resistance had to be broken or diverted, pointing out people to blame, setting one section against another – those in work (‘hard workers’) against those out of work (‘layabouts’), people not on benefits against those on benefits (‘scroungers’), disabled people (‘shirkers’, or ‘work shy’). That so many people were taken in by these tales is a disaster, not only for the scapegoated but because every individual is under the same threat.

Emboldened by this success the Tory/Lib government felt confident enough to go even further and dictate how much space a hame needs (the ‘bedroom tax’) and in doing so giving the like-minded controllers licence to dictate, if on benefits, what people should or should not buy.

It is important every person listens very carefully to what is being told to them and why, and by defending others’ rights you defend your own.

The famous speech by Pastor Neimoller is really worth recalling:

First they came for the communists

And I did not speak out because I was not a communist

Then they came for the socialists

and I did not speak out because I wasn’t a socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I did not speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak for me.

Most people have one asset, the ability to work; when the opportunity to exercise this is denied it has disastrous consequences on individuals and families, made worse by destroying public services.

A. Delahoy

Silverknowes Gardens

Three cheers as local companies win Queen’s Award for Enterprise

Three cheers as local companies win Queen’s Award for Enterprise

Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, has written to congratulate three businesses based in the constituency who have just won the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The companies are:

· HotDocs a document automation software company

· Petroleum Experts Ltd which develops petroleum-engineering software programs used to model and manage oil and gas fields, and

· The Innis & Gunn Brewing Company Ltd which produces speciality beers extremely popular in Canada, Sweden and the USA (as well as course in the UK!)

Mark (pictured below) said: “Three of the 13 Scottish winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise are based in Edinburgh North and Leith which is a success that we can be very proud of. All three – HotDocs, Innis & Gunn and Petroleum Experts – have managed to achieve major export growth at a time when the UK, like other countries, is keen to rebalance its economy and increase export sales.

“The Awards also highlighted their investment in product development as a major factor in that success which is why it is so important to ensure that SMEs can get the funding they need. It’s good to see that we have three local companies which appear to be so forward-looking and successful in developing products that the rest of the world wants to buy.”

This year there are 152 winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, 13 of which are based in Scotland.

The Queen’s Award is the UK’s most prestigious award for business enterprise and the winners will be celebrated at events at Buckingham Palace and the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on 23 July.

Join Wednesday’s Breakfast Bike Ride

Once again rhis Wednesday (19 June) people will be meeting their MPs, MSPs and councillors across Edinburgh to cycle together to SPOKES’ bicycle breakfast.

Launched last year, the first Bike Breakfast saw Edinburgh residents and their political representatives bike along their cycling commuting routes to a central Edinburgh meeting at the City Chambers for the annual Spokes Bike breakfast.

This year’s organisers hope to double the number of councillors attending the rides and breakfast.

A group spokesperson said: “After a record turn out of more than 4,000 people at POP2 (Pedal on Parliament) this year it is clear our representatives have an obligation to engage with us, we are providing the perfect opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about cycling”.

For details about rides and times and how you can get involved please check our website and Facebook groups.

www,breakfastbikeride.org.uk

https://www.facebook.com/events/130759000446271/?fref=ts

This event is part of http://www.bikeweek.org.uk/

and the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling http://www.edfoc.org.uk/

For more details please contact Mike 07779527004, email breakfastbikeride@gmail.com

Breakfast Bike Ride Team

Arise, Sir Baldrick!

At last, a ‘cunning plan’ has come together – and in British honours system hierarchy Baldrick now outranks his master Blackadder! Blackadder actor Tony Robinson has been knighted while his co-star Rowan Atkinson receives a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Among the other well-known names to receive honours are Adele, Rob Brydon, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, Clare Balding, golfer Paul Lawrie and former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, but the majority of recipients are unsung heroes – of the 1,180 people who appear on the Birthday Honours list, almost three-quarters are people who are actively engaged in charitable or voluntary work within their local communities.

BirthdayHonoursList2013

Broughton pupils on Question TIme

Two senior Broughton High School pupils are to appear on BBC’s Question Time tomorrow evening. Daniel McIvor and Tom Bagshaw were inspired by the recent ‘Question Time’ style event run by the school, are they were selected for the BBC programme for questions they submitted about the Scottish independence referendum.

The show – which tomorrow comes from Edinburgh and features an audience of 16 and 17 year olds – screens on BBC1 at 10.35 p.m.

Women city councillors unite to walk the Moonwalk

This Saturday I will be participating in the MoonWalk. There is a cross party group of women Councillors walking as a team and we have created an online Fundraising Page for The MoonWalk Edinburgh Scotland 2013.

To show your support for this effort and raise funding for breast cancer in Scotland, please donate at

http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/strident

This Team Web Page will be active until 29 Oct 13.

Thank you for uniting against breast cancer

With good wishes and good health,

Lesley Hinds

Mark Lazarowicz praises volunteers

Mark Lazarowicz MP has expressed support for volunteers working in Edinburgh North and Leith as part of this year’s Volunteers’ Week.

Volunteers’ Week is a UK-wide week to celebrate the work of millions of volunteers who give up their time to help others. You can find out more about UK Volunteers week at http://volunteersweek.org/

Mark said: “Volunteers are crucial to so many organisations in our community. Their work helps make our society a better place, and volunteers themselves also benefit tremendously from the experience – learning new skills, getting back into paid work, improving physical or mental well-being, or simply meeting interesting people and having fun.

“A good example of the importance of volunteers will be seen over the next weekend during the Leith Festival. On Leith Gala Day in particular, on Leith Links from 11 am on Saturday (8 June), hundreds of local volunteers will be showing the work of their organisation to the local community – publicising their work, raising funds, recruiting more volunteers, and generally meeting the public.”

The most popular fields for regular volunteers are sports and exercise; hobbies, recreation, arts and social clubs and religion.

During Volunteers’ Week organisations will be taking the opportunity to recognise the contribution of their volunteers through holding awards ceremonies, recruitment fairs, celebration events, training opportunities and volunteer taster sessions.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many organisations, and work in communities in organisations such as sports clubs, community groups and museums, as well as public sector bodies, schools and hospitals.

Muirhouse Millennium Centre’s Cathy Ahmed and North Edinburgh TimeBank were among the volunteers recognised at a City Chambers reception hosted by Lord Provost Cllr Donald Wilson last night. Congratulations to you all!

Timebank Choir in fine voice at the City Chambers PIC: Vicki Redpath — Timebank Choir in fine voice at the City Chambers
PIC: Vicki Redpath

Johnstone welcomes debate on ‘hidden GM’

Green MSP Alison Johnstone is welcoming confirmation from the Scottish Government that it intends to hold a debate in parliament on food labelling, amid growing concerns about GM materials hidden in everyday foods.

Alison recently tabled a motion in parliament highlighting the fact that major supermarkets have scrapped policies that prevented animals fed on genetically-modified crops reaching the shelves.

In a parliamentary answer to Alison received yesterday (5 June) the environment minister admits the issue is not covered by labelling regulations, which means customers have no idea if the products they’re buying have been fed on GM feeds.

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and food spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, said: “While a debate on labelling is welcome it’s a shame it won’t happen till September at the earliest. This is an important consumer issue; there is increasing interest in where our food comes from and what it contains.

“A recent Food Standards Agency survey found 67 per cent of consumers want meat, eggs and dairy labelled to show whether they come from animals fed on GM feed. I urge the Scottish Government to challenge the retailers to improve their labelling so that we can at least choose not to buy these products.”