Dundee Labour

News Digest

Week ending 22nd. December 2012

Kevin Keenan

Labour group leader, Dundee City Council

Support for Dundee Food Bank

16 December 2012

Statement by Kevin Keenan welcoming the cross-party support for the Labour Group’s motion at the Policy and Resources Committee of Dundee City Council

The UK Government’s Welfare Reform will see somewhere in the region of £21million taken out of the local economy, but more

importantly out of the pockets of those who need supported through very difficult times.

This is the first year I have come across so many requests asking people to put a little bit extra in their shopping trolley and donate to food banks.

It’s a blessing that we have food banks, but in 2012/2013, it is regrettable that so many people find themselves needing the level of support that food banks offer.

The Labour Group are pleased that all Political Parties supported our Motion (on Monday 10 December 2012) which will see a £25,000 donation from the Common Good Fund to the Dundee Food Bank in the hope that this makes a real difference to those who need it most.

I would also like to take this opportunity to commend the many volunteers, who make food banks possible.

I think it is very commendable that so many give their time to assist others.

I would encourage others who can afford to make a donation to consider food banks as they make such a difference.

web link : Dundee Food Bank

web link : Dundee Labour

Jim McGovern MP

Jim McGovern ‘disappointed’ by Scottish Government Remploy announcement

19 December 2012

Dundee West MP Jim McGovern has today called the Scottish Government announcement in the Scottish Parliament about the future of Remploy ‘disappointing’.

The SNP administration pledged to give employers cash incentives to take on those made redundant as a result of the UK government’s decision to close the historic organisation.

The pledge however falls far short of those made by the Labour administration in Wales, which not only has pledged more money for longer to employers taking on former Remploy staff, but they have also called on the Department for Work and Pensions to allow the devolved government to buy a number of the factories in order to secure their future.

In Wales the Labour administration has committed to cover up to 75% of the wage costs for a company, or 100% for a public body, who opt to take on one of the former Remploy employees for up to four years.

The Scottish Government however have committed only to give £5,000 for 18 months for each employee taken on.

No mention was made by the Scottish Government of plans advocated by Labour to ensure that Scottish public sector procurement procedures would be changed so that Remploy would become a preferred supplier.

Jim McGovern said,

“While the extra incentives are welcome, the separatists have fallen far short of what their rhetoric promised during this process.”

“They have fallen far short of the steps taken by the Labour administration in Wales to provide more money for longer to employers taking on former Remploy staff, and the SNP have failed to follow the Welsh example, who are actively working toward trying to keep factories open.”

“Remploy in Dundee and across Scotland have been badly let down by heartless Tories in Westminster and complacent separatists in Holyrood, both of whom have failed to do the right thing by the hard-working staff.”

Mr McGovern concluded,

“Labour in Dundee will continue to work with the factory to explore potential avenues that could mean a future for the

factory, a future that the UK and Scottish governments have chosen to not provide for them.”

Web link :

Jim McGovern MP

http://www.jimmcgovern.co.uk

Councillor Lesley Brennan

Local consequences of self-defeating austerity

19 December 2012

In my East End ward, unemployment in Douglas ( as measured by the claimant count) has gone up overall in the past two years , from 7.9 per cent to 8.1 per cent , comparing November 2010 with November 2012

In the Midlin area, unemployment has risen from 8.5 to 9.9 per cent in the same period, while in Craigiebank the rate has risen from 4.3 to 4.8 per cent.

While the number of those without work in these individual areas involved may be relatively small compared with the overall

number for the city, the effect of unemployment strikes just as hard.

It is these people, pensioners, and those on the lowest and middle incomes whose shoulders bear the most onerous burdens of reduced living standards, living with the fear of unemployment hovering over their lives, and the feeling of little hope in a better future.

These communities , like all others in Dundee, have been subjected to economic policies that are proving to be self-defeating.

Let us move from the East End ward to look at the larger framework of all those employed in the public sector in Scotland

Comparing the figures for the third quarter of the 2010 and the third quarter of this year, we find that, according to the Scottish Government’s figures , the entire public sector in Scotland has lost over 20,000 jobs ( full-time equivalent )

The breakdown includes :

NHS 3,200 jobs lost

Further Colleges of Education 1,800 jobs lost

Local Government 14,000 jobs lost

Civil Service 1,100 jobs lost

Other Public Bodies 700

The severity of these cuts has set back the prospects for sustained recovery because they have considerably reduced the demand for the goods and services produced.

The Austerity approach to economic recovery has claimed that as public sector jobs were cut, this would provide the stimulus for the economy to grow through the private sector, thus providing more jobs.

This approach made generous assumptions about the ability of the private sector to perform this role, which is one reason why recovery remains far off.

Let’s move even further away from the East End ward to the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

The IMF revealed that the effect of the spending cuts were now thought to be much worse than had earlier been predicted.

The independent Office of Budget Responsibility has worked on a model that for every £1 worth of spending cuts , economic output would expected to be depressed by 50p. ( a 0.5 “multiplier effect” )

The IMF now put the effect as much higher so that for every £1 cut in public spending , economic output would be depressed between 90p and £1.70 ( a “multiplier effect” of between 0.9 and 1.7) .

In short, the austerity polices are defeating their own purpose by exacerbating the very problems that they were intended to solve.

This is evidence that demonstrates why government policy has to change course .

More demand is needed in the economy , not more cuts.

Economics was wrongly given the derogatory title of “the dismal science”.

It is not economics that has made life dismal for people in the East End ward, but the politicians who selectively chose an economic course that would significantly reduce the size of the public sector, the sector that people in the East End ward engage with, use, and rely upon every day.

Web link :

Lesley Brennan http://www.lesleybrennan.com

Jenny Marra MSP

Commonwealth Games 2014

(Speech in the Scottish Parliament )

18 December 2012

I can tell Stewart Stevenson that my Wimbledon socks singularly fail to improve my tennis game every time that I wear them, but I will keep on trying.

Presiding Officer, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate.

To host the Commonwealth games is a huge privilege for Scotland and for Glasgow. We have the chance to show the world the best of our great country: the generosity of our people; the beauty of our landscapes and our cities; and the power of our communities to welcome, through unmatched tolerance and acceptance, those from around the Commonwealth and beyond.

However, I think that we all agree that the games are about more than sport.

We have the opportunity to play a leading role in a community of nations to promote common aims, values, rights and obligations.

Nowhere can we do more to play our part in that than by showing our commitment to tackling modern-day slavery.

The United Kingdom—and Scotland—as one of the world’s largest destination countries for human trafficking, continues to be a nation where the promise of a better life can end in misery and modern-day human slavery.

It is our moral duty in this Parliament—and there is a duty on the minister and the Scottish Government—to recognise the part that we must play when the world’s spotlight is on us by righting this wrong in our country.

In an answer to a parliamentary question earlier this year, the sports minister Shona Robison said:

“There is currently no intelligence to indicate that human trafficking will be an issue for Scotland for either games.”—

[Official Report, Written Answers, 31 January 2012; S4W-05138.]

That may seem a reason not to act but, as Gordon Meldrum of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency has made clear, solid intelligence is a luxury that we can rarely depend upon in preventing human trafficking. Gordon Meldrum said:

“Knowing whether you are one of ten victims or one of a hundred doesn’t change the hell you have been through.”

Speaking for the police and other agencies, he continued:

“So collectively we need to move on from looking to ‘prove’ that this is an issue, to one in which we accept it is an issue” and act.

For the Olympic games, the early figures show that human trafficking to London occurred where intelligence had failed.

Like Ms Robison, UK ministers did not recognise any specific threat of human trafficking during the London games, but the early figures show that there was a 35 per cent increase in referrals for human trafficking in London during this Olympic year of 2012.

Therefore, lack of prior intelligence is no reason not to act, because human trafficking happens when intelligence is not available to our agencies—there is enough evidence of that.

The Olympic anti-trafficking group attributes that 35 per cent increase in referrals to the robust awareness-raising measures in London, which I think Scotland can learn from in advance of the Commonwealth games.

This year in London, in partnership with the United Nations, 23 life-sized art installations were set up throughout the city.

They carried the stories of trafficking victims and information on how to identify trafficked people, and were manned by volunteers to raise public awareness.

The installations did not take much time or money to set up, but their impact is evident in the 35 per cent increase in referrals that I mentioned.

Other anti-trafficking measures that have been used at sporting events in Athens, Berlin and Vancouver are awareness-raising information cards that were included in packs given to visitors, the provision of shelters and training for front-line staff.

I have raised the issue of training previously in the chamber and asked the Scottish Government to consider anti-trafficking awareness training for police, ambulance staff and firefighters.

I know that awareness training is taking place for police officers at Tulliallan—I have asked to go there and see that—but I ask the minister, in his summing up speech, to update the Parliament on how far the Scottish Government has got with putting in place anti-trafficking awareness training for ambulance staff and firefighters.

It is not only the Labour Party that wants more to be done.

There is a UK-wide interdepartmental ministerial group on human trafficking, which comprises Kenny MacAskill and ministers from London, Wales and Northern Ireland, and which acts as our UK national rapporteur on human trafficking, as demanded by the European Union.

That multi-minister group has asked the Scottish Government to do more to raise awareness of human trafficking ahead of the Commonwealth games in Glasgow in 2014.

The group recognises that the Scottish Government needs to do more, so I ask the ministers to give a commitment to do so.

It is the obligation of the Scottish Government and Parliament to heed the call of that ministerial group to learn the lessons from London 2012— where there was a 35 per cent increase in

referrals—and to do more to tackle human trafficking during the Commonwealth games.

Web link : Jenny Marra MSP

http://www.jennymarra.com

Marlyn Glen

Borgen :The precarious political work-family balance

20 December 2012

The second series of the Danish political drama Borgen returns to BBC Four on 5th. January continuing to depict the grave consequences in the changes of the work-family balance for a female politician who is unexpectedly propelled into power as Prime Minister.

There are few female politicians in the top tiers of political power, and so even fewer in TV fiction.

There was the series “Commander in Chief” featuring Geena Davis as the US Vice President who takes office after the male President suffers a stroke.

However, her political opponents claim that she had no political mandate as she had been on the ticket as neither Democrat nor Republican, but as an “Independent”, implausible in today’s politics.

The series never returned after just one year, a quarter of the length of a real Presidential term of office.

UK parliamentary democracy in TV fiction has been the stories where men are the principal characters, represented in the famous series House of Cards, set in the time after the fall of Margaret Thatcher , where a Tory Chief Whip Frances Urquhart, plots his way to become Prime Minister with neither scruples nor conscience.

His memorable line is still with us, “ You might very well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.”

UK parliamentary politics has also been cast as a mainly male world in the humorous series The Thick of It.

Its battles of egos , careers and grudges recall the saying of Gore Vidal “ Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.”

The series gave a new meaning to the phrase “ freedom of expression”.

In Borgen the path to power is also the Parliamentary way where Birgitte Nyborg leads the main party in a coalition government whose chief members are men.

In negotiations with the male heads of the coalition, they refer to her mockingly as “Mummy” behind her back.

To retain her authority, she learns to survive.

She remains clear-minded and true to her political beliefs when compromise involves the acceptance of the politics of the possible, and even if that means shedding those who helped her into office.

The high offices of politics can be lonely places, however, and their demands are ever-present and ever-pressing.

And because of these, her family life begins to disintegrate.

At the beginning of the first series her husband is seen at home clearing away the family dishes.

By the end of the series, he’s filed for divorce.

She returns home each night after an increasingly lengtheningday’s work in Parliament.

Combining successfully the roles of the head of state and mother of two becomes increasingly more and more difficult.

As a politician under continual pressure from political friends and foes alike, and at the same time as a mother, she deals with family issues, such as the problem of her son wetting himself at school.

And in this dual role of striving to be a figure of perfection at both work and at home, struggling to save her family, Nyberg is the empathetic character that has made the series the success that it has been.

Maybe this fictional world will help us all in understanding how uneven the playing field is still for women in politics.

We need more women in political office to ensure that issues which women regard as important will be regarded as important in politics.

In order to embark on any career and then to maintain it, many women are expected to make compromises in their lives that men are not expected to do.

Men do not face questions over combining their commitment to their young family with professional career commitments.

And while “to spend more time with my family” is the universal wish of working mothers, “to spend more time with my family” frequently appears in the resignation statements of men whose professional careers have come to a sudden and unexpected end.

Getting many more women into more prominent roles in politics, business , commerce and all forms of work is the first stage in reflecting the composition of the population and their values.

The next stage is giving women much more influence over the scheduling of their work that would improve the work-family balance of millions of working women.

Web link :

Marlyn Glen http://www.marlynglen.com

Shelter's Letter to Santa

Councillor Richard McCready

17 December 2012

I support the work of Shelter and at Christmas they are campaigning on the issue of children living in temporary accommodation.

In Scotland 5,300 children will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.

I believe that Dundee City Council has a reasonably good record on this issue but I have asked for a briefing from the housing department about this.

I have signed Shelter's letter to Santa and I hope that the Scottish Government will take action to ensure that every child in Scotland will have a bed of their own; a safe place to play and do their homework and a warm, dry, safe place to call home.

You can sign up to the campaign here and send Shelter's letter to Santa.

You can also watch the video above which deals with the issue of temporary accommodation throughout the UK.

Video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJxC62hi2oo

Web link :

Richard McCready

http://www.richardmccready.org.uk

Call for Action to Secure a Sale of the Former Eastern Primary School on

Whinny Brae

Councillor Laurie Bidwell

19 December 2012

The former Eastern Primary School Site is still unsold 18 months after it was vacated.

The old school building has been marketed as as suitable for conversion into luxury flats with a short row of new build terraced houses fronting onto Rowanbank Gardens.

Apart from a flashy sales brochure, there is apparently no progress to report about a sale.

This is giving rise to concern among residents that the building will deteriorate and the site will become an eyesore.

This would be a poor outcome because the buildings are listed and nationally important for their construction and architectural appearance.

The lack of a sale is partly a matter of the depressed state of the housing market and partly about the asking price.

If the Council want to secure a sale, they will need to be more realistic and, like many property owners are having to do, they should consider cutting the price.

If they keep hanging out for the original cash amount they thought the sale would raise, they risk wasting council tax payers money on site security and interest payments on loans for other developments that would have otherwise been paid for by the capital receipt from the sale of the former Eastern Primary School buildings.

If the site were worth £1 million, the cost of borrowing that amount might be as much as £50,000 per year.

I have contacted the Director and Convener of City Development to ask that they review the Council strategy on the sale of this site.

Web link :

Laurie Bidwell

http://www.lauriebidwell.org.uk