September 4, 2018 Media

Here’s what a truly radical programme for government would look like.

4th September 2018

The SNP government has delivered its programme for government. Some of the things in it look familiar. Like…

1. Legislation for a Scottish Investment Bank.

Labour announced plans for a Scottish Investment Bank last year. The difference is ours would be backed up by the full power of the UK Economy, with £20billion worth of lending power.

2. Making payment of the living wage, gender equality in pay, and a ban on zero hours contracts a criteria for business grants.

Labour has been calling for this for years – but we would extend it to the £11billion Scotland spends on public contract, not just the grants Scottish Enterprise makes.

3. Access to counsellors for every school, college and university.

Labour has been calling for this for years, and we’re delighted that the SNP has finally listened.

4. Extending the provision of sanitary products to schools, colleges and universities.

We would go a stage further and enshrine a universal right in law

 

These are the changes we deliver simply by pushing policy in opposition. Imagine what we could do in government.

Here are 11 things not in the SNP’s programme, that we would deliver in ours: 

1. Increasing Child Benefit by £260 per year, helping nearly a million kids and lifting tens of thousands of children out of poverty.

2. A cap on agency fees in our NHS, so more money can be reinvested in the health service.

3. An industrial strategy to deliver high wage jobs and skills.

4. Lifting the cap on students from Scotland getting into higher education.

5. Tackling the housing crisis with a Mary Barbour law.

6. Delivering a fair deal for teachers and ending the cuts to schools, which have topped £400m since 2010.

7. Suspending the tests that are driving Primary 1 children to tears.

8. Ending the cuts to local services with a radical anti-austerity budget.

9. And giving local communities the power to introduce a tourist tax.

https://twitter.com/GdnScotland/status/1034066482039275520

10. Tackle the shameful wealth inequalities that blight Scotland, where the top 1 per cent own as much as the bottom 50 per cent put together.

11. End the scandal of holiday hunger by rolling out schemes like North Lanarkshire Council’s Food 365 across Scotland.

 

12. And opposing a divisive second independence referendum – which would mean an unprecedented decade of austerity for the people of Scotland.

Share our vision for real change? Join our movement for the many here.