Scotland needs a government that has answers for the future – not one obsessed by the arguments of the past

Nicola Sturgeon should take ownership of a decade of broken promises by the SNP government, Kezia Dugdale said today.

Writing in the Daily Record ahead of SNP conference this week, the Scottish Labour leader outlined broken promises by the SNP on council tax, education, and the NHS.

Ms Dugdale calls for the SNP to focus on the bread and butter issues that matter to Scottish families.

The Scottish Labour leader writes:

“It’s that time of year when party conference season takes over the BBC Two TV schedule. But for weary journalists, exhibitors, politicians, and viewers, the end is now in sight.

Later this week, the SNP will hold its tenth annual conference since it formed the Scottish Government. That’s nearly a decade in power.

When Nicola Sturgeon delivers her keynote speech, there is only one word her supporters in Glasgow want to hear: independence. What she has to say on this will dominate headlines for days to come.

Here is my response: Labour does not support a second independence referendum and will vote against any such proposal in Holyrood.

Instead I’d like to see Nicola Sturgeon do something different when she takes to the stage – take ownership of a decade of SNP government which is littered with broken promises.

The SNP promised to scrap the unfair council tax back in 2007. Ten years on, all the Nationalists are proposing to scrap is the council tax freeze. Or cast your mind back to the spring of 2007 and the SNP’s flagship pledge to cut classroom sizes. Nearly a decade later, all that Nicola Sturgeon’s government has done is cut the budget for our schools.

Every young person starting college or university this autumn spent their whole secondary school under an SNP Government. In 2007 they pledged to dump student debt, but instead they cut bursaries and grants for the poorest students – and debt rocketed.

Voters will never forget the LibDems’ broken promise on tuition fees in England – and they should never forget the SNP’s broken promise to Scotland’s students.

Nicola Sturgeon promised education would be the driving and defining priority of her government, but time after time she refuses to back Labour’s plan for a 50p top rate of tax for those earning more than £150,000 a year to invest in schools.

The Nationalists have also been in charge of our cherished NHS for nearly ten years. Before May, the SNP insisted local NHS services in Glasgow, Paisley, Inverclyde and Lanarkshire would be safe. Fast forward to this autumn and they are facing the axe.

And only last week it emerged that the number of hospital operations cancelled due to growing pressure on the NHS is rising, while there have been more than 5,000 hospital beds cut under the SNP.

Scotland needs a government that has answers for the future – not one that is obsessed by independence and the arguments of the past.”

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7 thoughts on “Scotland needs a government that has answers for the future – not one obsessed by the arguments of the past

  1. This article is fully to the standards of one written by “Jim O’Neill”, one that totally ignores the fact that Labour has either voted for or abstained from voting against Tory austerity. Also the minor fact that the country still believes the SNP are a far better choice for governing Scotland than the Labour party, hence the one Labour MP and the third place in MSP’s.

    Also the usual suicide note “Labour does not support a second independence referendum and will vote against any such proposal in Holyrood.”. Well with luck maybe your membership and support will say different, because there is going to be no hiding place from the next one, its –

    either the Tories or SCOTLAND – choose.

  2. Scotland gave Scottish Labour its vote for the last 60 years—broken promises?—Labour wrote the book!
    Anyway, the latest UK polling has Labour at 26%, 17% behind a visibly xenophobic Tory Party.
    If nothing changes (and what could change, in a Party riven by vendettas, personal dislike and ideological civil war?) then Labour will sink into electoral oblivion, north and now south of the border. The Sun, Mail etc will be sharpening their pencils right now, with huge glee.

    The next referendum ( and yes, there WILL be one), will pit a far right, narrow nationalist, separatist, chauvinistic, xenophobic Tory Party (with Wee Wullie and Kezia in tow, hiding behind Ruthie) against people who only want the best for Scotland—and that will be as part of the world, not as part of the “New Singapore”(surely a reference to the wellbeing of London, not the UK, which the Tories don’t much care about).

  3. Better together ring any bells, or the he vow, or Scotland can lead the Uk. All these promises broken by Labour and Tory.
    A bit late to take the moral high ground when we have had decades of labours broken promises to Scotland and the people.

    There have been some good things that labour did and I certainly won’t take that away from labour, but they have left little wriggle room for the blame game and sure every political party has its faults.

    But there is no dignity in labour calling the SNP out on broken promises without recognising the good they have achieved since coming to government especially when we are still waiting for better together to kick in, it seems that it has been kicked into the long grass and our future is even bleaker than it ever was.

  4. Jesus fucking Christ is Labour still pathetically trying to blame local Labour council decisions to cut local NHS services on the Scottish Government?

    Are they still stupidly claiming they don’t get enough funding after having decades in charge with all the funding they could ever dream off which resulted in the same level of public service cuts they propose today?

    16% support? They don’t deserve 0.16%.

      1. Really? So when a local council holds back say 100 million for a rainy day that doesn’t affect the local funding of the NHS authority?

        Pants of fire again Duncan. Christ you must go through a lot of clothes. Bet your husband is always nagging you about it.

        We have Labour in Scotland whining via their poodle media circus about a Scottish Government 400 million underspend while local Labour councils across Scotland deliberately underspend their local budgets and deprive the local NHS services of the money the Scottish Government earmarked for them via the local budget allocation.
        If I were a cynic I would say it was Labour in Scotlands deliberate policy to deprive local services of cash just so they could whine via their poodle media pals about Scottish Government failures.

        What a pity its so transparent coupled with the media losing all credibility.

        16%? It still has a way to go but Labour are trying really hard to bottom it before the end of the year.

        1. You’re a pig ignorant liar, Mike.

          The Scottish Government funds NHS Boards. The Scottish Government also decides exactly how much councils have to spend. The idea that you can blame Labour councils – and it is only ever Labour councils to blame in your utterly ludicrous made-up view of the world – for NHS budget is not just dishonest, it is moronic.

          Time’s up for your lies here. No more.

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