Assemble 10:30am: Johnson Terrace, EH1 2PW March off: 11am
Rally at the Scottish Parliament 11.30 – 1pm
The Cost-of-Living Crisis is hitting people across the country. Public service workers in particular are facing a fresh set of real terms pay cuts on top of years of stagnating wages.
The STUC and our affiliated unions are campaigning for a range of urgent actions to stem this crisis, including action to reduce energy bills, support for those of all ages on benefits, rent caps and action to reduce transport costs.
The ultimate responsibility for the Cost-of-Living Crisis sits with the Tories at Westminster. However, this does not mean that the Scottish Government is powerless. It needs to start by funding inflation level pay rises for Scottish public service workers.
Join us, as we demand better for the public service workers of Scotland.
Shadow Scottish Secretary: At some point, something will break, and Scottish voters will say: ‘We can’t go on like this’.
LABOUR’S Ian Murray has blasted Nicola Sturgeon for using the Scottish Parliament to “manage decline” and push for independence.
In an exclusive interview with GB News, Mr Murray, who is Labour’s only MP in Scotland, ripped into Ms Sturgeon and said although he doesn’t think Scottish Independence will happen anytime soon opponents would have to fight “very, very hard” to prevent it in any new vote.
Speaking to Gloria De Piero, the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland also opened up about losing his father when he was aged just nine.
He also recalled the bizarre moment he almost blew his chance of a Shadow Cabinet job – by mistakenly putting the phone down on then Labour-leader Harriet Harman when she’d called to offer him the post.
Asked by Ms Piero about the chances of Scotland ever securing independence during his lifetime he said: “I absolutely don’t think I will live to see it, because it just doesn’t work. They just cannot find a viable way of promoting a proposition that works.
“And that’s not to say they might not win it eventually. Nicola Sturgeon has said that if they lose a second one, they’ll have a third. And all this stuff about mandates, about Brexit, about the Tories. All of the excuses that they give for another referendum are all the excuses that were given the day after the last one.
“So, we’re just finding an excuse and a trigger to have one. And as all that’s happening, and I see it in my own constituency day in, day out is the NHS is getting worse, educational attainment gap’s widening, transport is dreadful, the economy is slipping behind the rest of the UK, the number of higher rate taxpayers is diminishing, the demographics are much older and therefore all the problems that comes with that.
“And none of that’s being dealt with. It’s just all Westminster’s fault: ‘so vote for independence’. And I just think at some point, something will break, and Scottish voters will go, ‘We can’t go on like this’. And maybe that’ll take another referendum, you know, I don’t want one, we shouldn’t have one, if we end up having one, we’ll fight very, very hard to stay in the United Kingdom.
“But something’s going to have to break to get out of this. Otherwise, we’re going to stay on this constitutional merry go round and things are just going to get worse. This Scottish Government essentially uses the Scottish Parliament to manage decline.”
Mr Murray, who represents Edinburgh South, also opened up to Ms Piero about losing his dad, Jim, when he was just nine years old.
Recalling the night he died, Mr Murray said: “We were playing snooker at home, mum was out at the bingo, and he was in his pyjamas. His bottoms fell down and I was only nine so I started laughing, my brother was a little bit embarrassed and a bit concerned. But, you know, he also just thought it was him messing around. Then he never missed a ball for about 10 minutes, he just potted everything and we were going: ‘This is a bit strange’.
“Then 10 minutes later, he was on the floor. He had a cerebral haemorrhage. Mum was called and rushed home. Eventually the ambulance came. Then at four o’clock in the morning mum returned and said, ‘Dad’s not coming home’. The following morning, I woke up, went into the lounge, and the whole family were sitting there, and that’s when it really sunk in.
“The lesson from it was that he had been ill for some time and didn’t tell anyone and he should have really got some advice. Whether or not, in the mid-80s, he would have been able to get the medical attention required to sort something like that, I don’t know, because obviously it’s moved on quite a bit.
“But, you know, he was having blackouts at work and wasn’t telling anyone, he was feeling a bit depressed, which is all the great symptoms of having something wrong with your brain. My dad was 39 when he died. I’m six years older than that now, so I reflect on it a lot. And being a father now as well, I reflect on it a lot. But yeah, I mean it was utterly traumatic, and my poor mum had to deal with the consequences of it. She went into 6th gear and brought up two boys on her own.”
Mr Murray said he has hardly any memories of his dad and that his mother, Lena, never talks about her husband’s death.
“She’s never, ever spoken about it,” he continued. “Apart from her regret that she didn’t let us boys go to the funeral, which was a choice she made at the time, and I think she regrets that.”
Mr Murray was the only Scottish Labour MP to keep his seat in 2015, meaning even though he’d been tipped by many to one day become Shadow Scottish Secretary he suddenly became the automatic choice.
However, as he told GB News, things didn’t run smoothly.
He explained: “Because I’d been the only person to win, my phone for 24 hours was just completely red hot. And there was this woman called Harriet from the BBC Scotland who was phoning me up constantly to say, ‘Could you do drive time? Could you do the morning show? Could you do Good Morning Scotland?’ and ‘What about Sunday Shows?’.
“Obviously because the election was on the Thursday, elected overnight on the Thursday night into Friday. And I just said, ‘Look. It’s been a really tough election. I’ve done all the media I really want to do. I have nothing else to say and until things settle down, I’m not quite sure I want to do anymore’, and she kept ringing and ringing.
“And then my phone rang again, and I just picked it up, I was in my flat at home, the flat I still live in, and I just said, ‘Ian Murray speaking’. And I just heard this, ‘It’s Harriet here’, and I didn’t hear anything else, the voice on the other side of the phone said, ‘I’d like you to join the Shadow cabinet’, and I thought I heard, ‘Are you joining the Shadow Cabinet?’.
“I went, ‘Look Harriet, will you stop bothering me? It’s been a long week. You know, I am the only one that’s left. We’re all in a bit of shock here, and I’m sick of journalists phoning me and asking me if I’m joining the Shadow Cabinet. So, the answer is no comment’, and I put the phone down. And actually, the phone rang again, and it was Harriet Harman as the acting leader of the Labour Party offering me a place in the Shadow Cabinet.”
Laughing, he added: “So, I apologised profusely, and she promised never to mention it. Oh, and I also promised I would never tell the story….”
People from across Scotland will be invited to join a Citizens’ Panel which will look to improve how the Parliament works with people across Scotland.
The 24-person panel, to be selected at random, will broadly reflect the demographic make-up of Scotland. The Citizens’ Panel on Participation will give members of the public a direct opportunity to influence change.
They will report to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee who recently launched an inquiry into public participation.
The panel is just one of the many ways the Committee is gathering views that will help inform how the Parliament involves, reflects and meets the needs of all the communities it represents, with a focus on improving engagement for those currently under-represented.
Participants do not need any prior knowledge to take part and the panel will receive support throughout the sessions, which will hear from speakers who are passionate about democracy and public participation, to help facilitate discussion and inform findings.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Convener, Jackson Carlaw MSP, said:“This is a unique opportunity to help shape the way the Scottish Parliament works with the people of Scotland and I would encourage everyone who receives an invitation over the coming weeks to register and get involved.
“We know that the Parliament doesn’t hear enough from some groups and communities and this Citizens’ Panel will bring together a diverse range of voices to make recommendations over how Holyrood can better connect and reflect the views of the people MSPs are here to represent.
“If selected, your views could help to directly shape the future of the way the Scottish Parliament engages with communities across Scotland and improve public participation in decision making across the board.”
One week before the release of Scotland’s exam results, Holyrood’s Education, Children and Young People Committee is recommending that replacing Education Scotland is an opportunity to ensure that Scotland’s education agency takes ownership for closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
In its report into the Scottish Attainment Challenge, the Committee notes with concern evidence the variation in education performance across local authorities in Scotland. The report asks Scotland’s education agency to urgently investigate the variations and set out the actions it is taking to ensure consistency across the country.
Teachers are singled out for praise in the report, despite some of the challenges faced in working towards closing the attainment gap. The teachers and headteachers who spoke to the Committee during the inquiry are described as “inspirational”.
Some of the Committee’s other recommendations are around ensuring that the voices of classroom teachers, parents, carers and children and young people are at the centre of plans for attainment challenge spending. The Committee asks the education agency to monitor this so that funding is used as effectively as possible.
The report also calls on the agency to monitor how local authorities ensure stability of funding for third sector partners, take account of the needs of rural schools and make sure that schools have access to external expertise to ensure they can measure the effectiveness of their interventions.
Sue Webber MSP, Convener of the Education, Children and Young People Committee, said: “During this inquiry the Committee heard positive stories about the work being done by schools to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap.
“However, in our report, we have noted Audit Scotland’s conclusion that there has been limited progress on closing the poverty-related attainment gap and that inequalities have been worsened by Covid-19.
“It is essential that the reforms to the Government’s education agency ensure the new schools inspectorate is able to monitor the effectiveness of the implementation of plans to close the poverty-related attainment gap.”
The allocation of funding is also examined in the report. Extra funding that was initially allocated to nine ‘challenge authorities’ is now being tapered in favour of a strategy which spreads funding across Scotland.
The Committee recognises that poverty exists throughout Scotland but asks the Scottish Government to monitor the impact of the tapering of funds from the challenge authorities and to report its findings.
With regards to how funds are spent, the Committee would like to see more work done on measuring the impact. Its report asks the Scottish Government to set out how it will, as a matter of urgency, establish a national baseline for measuring progress in closing the attainment gap following the pandemic.
It also asks the Government to explain how there will be sufficient challenge to ensure that both local and national targets are ambitious.
An exhibition showcasing some of the most thought-provoking photographs produced over the last year will go on display at the Scottish Parliament.
The World Press Photo exhibition will feature over 120 images illustrating some of the major issues facing the world today. From the effects of the climate crisis to civil rights movements, access to education and preserving indigenous practices and identities.
The free exhibition will be displayed in the Scottish Parliament’s Main Hall from Thursday 28 July until Saturday 27 August.
Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer, the Rt Hon Alison Johnstone MSP, said: “This exhibition connects people to the stories that matter.
“Year after year, World Press Photo highlights the significant contribution of photojournalism to our understanding of the stories and people that make the headlines.
“The Scottish Parliament is the only venue in the UK to host this global exhibition. I hope many of you get the opportunity to come to the Parliament to see this striking display.”
This year the winners were chosen out of 64,823 photographs and open format entries, by 4,066 photographers from 130 countries.
Some of the other images featured in the exhibition include:
World Press Photo of the year by Amber Bracken for the New York Times. Red dresses hung on crosses along a roadside commemorate children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, an institution created to assimilate Indigenous children, following the detection of as many as 215 unmarked graves, Kamloops, British Columbia;
Antonella poses for her photograph in the kitchen at home, while in strict lockdown in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the day she made her promise not to cut her hair till she could resume person-to-person classes, taken by Irina Werning, Pulitzer Center;
Police agents arrest a man while his wife and family resist, during evictions of people from the San Isidro settlement, in Puerto Caldas, Risaralda, Colombia, taken by Vladimir Encina;
A protestor throws back a tear-gas canister that had been fired by security forces, during a march demanding an end to military rule in Khartoum, Sudan, taken by Faiz Abubakr Mohamed.
A targeted emergency response, on a par with action taken during the pandemic, is needed to address the energy bills crisis, says Holyrood’s Net Zero, Energy & Transport Committee in a report published today.
The report, which lays out the Committee’s findings following an inquiry into rising energy prices, says the Scottish and UK Governments must provide more immediate, carefully targeted support to those struggling with increasing fuel bills.
The report highlights three areas where the Committee believe immediate action and targeted support for the most vulnerable could be improved. These include additional financial help for households, better energy education and advice services and acceleration of programmes to retrofit and insulate homes.
It also says that medium and long-term plans and strategies must accelerate to reduce future exposure to volatile energy prices and help meet net zero targets.
Dean Lockhart MSP, Convener of the Committee, said: “This is a crisis unfolding in real time and one which we are told threatens ‘a catastrophic loss of life’ if swift action is not taken.
“We recognise some of the actions taken by the UK and Scottish Governments even over the short period of our inquiry, but more can and must be done now and in a more targeted way to get help to those most in need.
“Over the medium to longer term, it is also clear that we need to escape dependence on volatile international energy markets and accelerate all our efforts to enable this.
“For now, our message is clear: the Scottish Government must demonstrate a targeted emergency response to this crisis, on a par with action taken during the pandemic, to ensure the least well off are not vulnerable to death or serious ill-health due to rising energy costs and associated cost of living expenses.”
In the report, the Committee agrees with the Scottish Government on the need to take action through available welfare provisions but asks them to set out how social security and other assistance will be targeted specifically at lower-paid families with young children, those with disabilities and health conditions, older people, and those identified as experiencing or at risk of experiencing fuel poverty.
The report says that a national publicity campaign – akin to those used during the pandemic – and increased support and funding for those providing advice and advocacy at a local level is needed, so that everyone in Scotland looking for help can find it.
The Committee also recommends that plans for a programme of home heating and insulation, towards which the Scottish Government has committed an investment of £1.8bn, be accelerated and targeted at those most in need.
The Committee is writing separately to the Minister of State for the UK Government, Greg Hands MP, calling for similar urgent action in relation to matters for which he is responsible.
The big issues facing people in Scotland will feature at the Festival of Politics, with the programme for the event being unveiled today.
Taking place over three days from Thursday 11 until Saturday 13 August, the Festival features a number of online and in-person events taking place in the iconic surroundings of the Scottish Parliament.
Themes such as end of life choices, the state of the UK union, cost of living crisis, our climate, migration and equality will all feature. Alongside distinguished panel guests drawn from all walks of life across Scotland and beyond, sessions will allow festivalgoers to share their own experiences and ask questions.
The Debating Chamber will also see well-known figures address the audience in a series of ‘in conversation’ style events. On Thursday, philosopher Professor A.C. Grayling will talk about the three most urgent challenges facing the world today: climate change, technology and justice. On Friday, well-known footballer John Barnes will talk about his experiences of racism and what needs to be done to tackle this in modern society.
This year the Festival will also feature a rehearsed reading of Holding / Holding On from the National Theatre of Scotland scripted by Nicola McCartney in collaboration with care-experienced people and those within the care system. A powerful reading that has, at its heart, the intersection where care, class and poverty meet.
The Rt Hon Alison Johnstone MSP, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, said: “This programme that has been unveiled today captures the topics of conversations that are happening all over Scotland with family and friends around kitchen tables, on social media, in newspapers and on television.
“We wanted to bring together those issues that are important to people and allow them to hear different perspectives drawn from people across civic society about how we can make a difference.
“I really do hope that there is something for everyone in this programme and I’m delighted to be welcoming people back into the Parliament for this event.”
TheCOVID-19 Recovery Committeeis to analyse the impact of the pandemic on the Scottish labour market, including how long Covid, long-term sickness and early retirement is affecting the number of those in work.
As the country starts the process of recovery from the pandemic, a key issue that has emerged is a persistently high number of people no longer part of the workforce, termed ‘economically inactive’.
A blog by the Fraser of Allander Institute concluded in April 2022 that: “More worrying for the outlook for the Scottish labour market is the fact that we now have over 20,000 more people economically inactive because of long-term sickness than we had pre-pandemic.”
The Committee will investigate the reasons behind these high numbers, including the emergence of above average numbers of long-term sick.
They want to understand if this is this due to pre-existing conditions, or new conditions, such as long COVID, or other factors, such as stress brought on by pandemic experiences. The Committee will also look at whether early retirement is one of the drivers behind this change in the labour market.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee Convener Siobhian Brown MSP said: “Unlike previous economic shocks, where the labour force numbers recovered much more quickly, we are seeing concerning persistent numbers of long term economically inactive people.
“We want to find out why this has happened and what needs to be done to encourage these people back into the work place.
“We are keen to learn more about the labour market impact of the pandemic on people with pre-existing health conditions, what influenced people to take early retirement and whether specific groups of society or areas of the country have been impacted more than others.
“There is no doubt that the reasons behind this will be complex but in order to address this issue we must first understand why people are no longer working.”
A modern parliament that is committed to embracing technology and change to become more accessible and inclusive for the people it serves. That is the vision for the Scottish Parliament in a new report published yesterday by Holyrood’s Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee.
The report makes it clear that the hybrid parliament, where Members and committee witnesses can take part virtually, should be here to stay. But this must be supported by on-going investment in technology and infrastructure.
The report follows an inquiry by the Committee which looked at ways in which scrutiny and debate can be conducted in hybrid format as well as exploring wider changes to procedures to improve scrutiny.
Measures in the report include a recommendation to introduce proxy voting for those on parental leave or ill.
Speaking as the report published, Committee Convener Martin Whitfield MSP said: “Parliament cannot stand still. During the pandemic we saw a huge amount of change across the country.
“Working from home, zoom video calls and remote learning became the norm for many of us, including Parliament. It is important we continue to evolve and take advantage of the technology around us.
“But these changes need to be about more than just technology. Our practices and procedures should be fit for the Scotland of today and ready for the Scotland of tomorrow. We must challenge ourselves to innovate and introduce new measures and be willing to look closely at how we work
“Our report recommends the introduction of a proxy voting pilot scheme for MSPs. This will ensure your MSP can still represent you even when circumstances rightly mean they cannot cast their vote.”
Deputy Convener Bob Doris MSP said: “This Parliament was founded on principles of accountability, equality and accessibility and we heard throughout our inquiry about the benefits of having a hybrid system which allows a broader range of people to engage with their Parliament, including those who may have been previously excluded.
“We cannot shy away from embracing change which makes us a more accessible and reflective Parliament of the people of Scotland. However, we must also ensure that the Parliament itself remains a place to come together, share ideas and debate the issues of the day.
“This is why our report makes clear that we must continue to invest to in technology that supports the Members in their work.”
How will the rising cost of living affect the Scottish Budget in 2023-24? Will the Scottish Government’s proposals for reforming the public service deliver the efficiencies expected?
The committee is seeking views from organisations and the public to inform its pre-budget scrutiny work, prior to the Scottish Government publishing its 2023/24 budget later this year.
Committee Convener Kenneth Gibson MSP said: “The next Scottish Budget will be challenging as the current cost-of-living crisis impacts on Scotland.
The Committee is therefore keen to hear from organisations and individuals how the Scottish Government’s Budget in 2023-24 should respond to this crisis.
“We also want to hear views on how the government’s proposed reform of the public service will support its future spending plans.”
Mr Gibson concluded: “Using the government’s resource spending review announced in May, we will focus our pre-budget scrutiny on the proposals for reforming the public service, the impact of the cost of living crisis on the Scottish Budget, and how spending priorities might affect the delivery of national outcomes.”
