Dundee Labour News

Digest 25 November 2011

Councillor Kevin Keenan

Almost 1 unemployed person in 5 in Dundee has been out of work for over a year.

According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, there are just over 1,000 of the 5,200 unemployed in Dundee who have been out of work for over a year.

Commenting on the figures, Councillor Kevin Keenan, Labour group leader on Dundee City Council said,

"Long-term unemployment means having much less money to support yourself and your family , being cut off from the network of daily activities with work colleagues, and a loss of personal status that having a job provides.

"It's particularly worrying when it affects young people because it makes it harder for them to find their way into work.

"This is already a significant problem.

"The number of young people unemployed in this country has passed the 1 million mark, and the number of young people in Dundee without a job has risen by 70 per cent in the last four years.

"Labour will continue to argue for its 5 point plan to get the economy moving again with more jobs through :

* a tax on bankers' bonuses to pay for jobs for the young

* accelerating long-term investment projects

* a temporary reversal of January's 5 per cent increase in VAT

* a 1 per cent cut in VAT home improvements, repairs and maintenance to 5%

* a national insurance tax break for a year for all those small firms which take on extra workers"

The number of those unemployed for over one year by area of Dundee

area of Dundee October 2011

number

Ardler 30Balgay 20Balgillo 15Balgowan 25Barnhill 10Baxter Park 35Bowbridge 45Brackens 20Broughty Ferry 10Camperdown 50Claverhouse 20Craigiebank 20Douglas 70East Port 50Fairmuir 35Hilltown 55Law 45Lochee East 35Lochee West 55Logie 30Longhaugh 70Ninewells 40Pitkerro 75Riverside 5Stobswell 80Strathmartine 15Tay Bridges 30West Ferry 5Whitfield 50Total for Dundee 1,020

Source of data : Office of National Statistics

Dundee’s Misery Index is now over 10 per cent

Marlyn Glen

16 November 2011

There is such as thing as The Misery Index.

It’s the sum of the rate of unemployment plus the rate of inflation, and added together they

give an indication of the financial misery that accompanies unemployment, under-

employment and the fear of an uncertain future for individuals and their families.

Strictly speaking, the Misery Index applies only to countries.

However, taking some degree of licence to make a point, the Misery Index for Dundee would

be 10.6 per cent just now ( 5.0 per cent rate of inflation last month plus the 5.6 per cent rate

for unemployment in the city )

The overall rate of unemployment in Dundee masks its most troubling tale - the age 16-24

age group in the city has an 8 per cent unemployment rate, and in the past three and a half

years, the number of unemployed in that important age group of future Dundonians, has

risen from 945 to 1,605.

There are dire forecasts of more misery to come , in the day-to-day running of family

budgets hit by rising food prices, higher energy and fuel costs, and particularly for women.

Many of them are now the breadwinner in the family, whether it be in full-time or in part-time

work, and they face the horrendous odds.

That’s why the latest figures for those who are "economically inactive" in Dundee ( those)

show that 3,600 such women in Dundee want a job.

The corresponding figure for men is less, at 3,200.

People who are "economically inactive" are generally speaking those are beyond retiral age,

and those who cannot work for reasons such as illness, disability, or those who remain at

home to look after family.

Family responsibilities are the most common reason given for women being economically

inactive.

The increase in the number of women in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance in Dundee since

last June is greater than in men, 365 to 312, probably reflecting in part changes in the Lone

Parent Obligation.

Women make up the majority of employees in the public sector, such as the NHS, education,

local councils, and it is this sector that is being targeted and shredded in this recession.

Women’s working skills are needed now as much as they were in the past.

The number of nursing and midwifery staff in NHS Tayside is now the lowest in 5 years .

The number of school teachers in secondary schools in Dundee, almost two-thirds of whom

are women, is now at its lowest since 2005.

The number of school teachers in primary schools, 90 per cent of whom are women, is now

at its lowest since 2005.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

A view from America ( current Misery Index of 13) - an editorial in the "New York Times" -

"Britain’s self-inflicted Misery" - lays the blame forcibly and truly where it belongs :

"Austerity was a deliberate ideological choice by Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling

coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, elected 17 months ago. It has failed and

can be expected to keep failing. But neither party is yet prepared to acknowledge that reality

and change course.

"Britain’s economy has barely grown since the budget cuts began taking effect late last year.

The most recent quarterly figures showed the economy flat-lining, with growth at 0.1 percent.

"New figures reported Britain’s highest jobless numbers in more than 15 years. Independent

analysts expect unemployment — now 8.1 percent — to keep rising in the months ahead.

The government has kept its promise to slash public-sector jobs — more than 100,000 have

been lost in recent months. But its deficit-reduction policies have failed to revive the business

confidence that was supposed to spur private-sector hiring.

"Drastic public spending cuts were the wrong deficit-reduction strategy for the weakened

British economy a year ago. … Britain’s unhappy experience is further evidence that radical

reductions in spending will do little but stifle economic recovery.

"Slashing government spending in an already stalled economy weakens anemic demand,

leading to lost output and lost tax revenues. As revenues fall, deficit reduction requires longer,

deeper spending cuts. Cut too far, too fast, and the result is not a balanced budget but a lost

decade of no growth. That could now happen in Britain. .

"Austerity is a political ideology masquerading as an economic policy. It rests on a myth,

impervious to facts, that portrays all government spending as wasteful and harmful, and

unnecessary to the recovery. The real world is a lot more complicated. America has no need

to repeat Mr. Cameron’s failed experiment. "

One of the band of economists who predicted the banking crash and the extent of the

present recession ,and an ex-member of the Bank of England’s interest rate committee was

by David Blanchflower, who has studied the long -term effects of unemployment on young

people.

He looked at data from the National Child Development Study, which examined the lives of

children born in one particular week in 1958.

He found that while those in their early 20s who had lost their jobs in the late 1970s and

early 1980s managed to make good again, the psychological mark of being without a job in

the earlier years remained with many of them into their mid-forties, and in some cases longer.

They were more likely to be earning less than those with uninterrupted employment and they

were less likely to be healthy and happy with their work.

Below are some figures for levels of unemployment in Dundee across all age groups in that

same period :

If David Blanchflower’s argument is correct, the question arises, how many amongst those

who were born in the late 1950s and who lost their jobs in the 1970s and 80s felt the effect

of its misery into their middle aged years, and still feel it even today?

Year Average Number unemployed in Dundee

1979 8,668

1980 10,861

1981 14,723

1982 15,611

1983 15,943

1984 16,423

Council Avoid Answering my Questions on Teacher Numbers in Dundee

Councillor Laurie Bidwell

Late on Monday afternoon, I was notified that the item from the Agenda of the Meeting of

the Policy and Resources Committee - 'Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme for Teaching Staff

and Associated Professionals' had been withdrawn.

I think this is because the Administration are very reluctant to provide public answers to the

questions I have been asking about maintaining teacher numbers in Dundee Schools and the

financial penalties if teacher numbers are not maintained.

Councillor Guild (Leader of the Administration of the Council) has been attending Leaders'

Meetings at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

As part of the budgetary settlement, Councillor Guild has agreed to accept the imposition of

economic sanctions from the Scottish Government if teacher numbers are not maintained in

return for some additional cash from the government.

But what sanctions are these and in what circumstances will they be applied?

If Councillor Guild can't declare what these will be, we would have been in danger of making

a decision last night which would later not have been honoured.

This would have disappointed teachers who had been encouraged to apply for something

that might not really be available.

Councillor Guild needs to give the Council the full facts before we can be confident that we

have a viable early retirement scheme for teachers to approve.

His Education Convener, Councillor Fordyce also needs to be clear about what level of pupil

teacher ratio she wants to protect in Dundee Schools.

Clearly they were both not prepared to provide any answers on Monday night.

Dundee parents and carers as well as Councillors deserve straight answers to these questions

that will affect the schools and nurseries that their children are attending.

Before the item on teacher numbers in Dundee was withdrawn from the council agenda,

Laurie Bidwell had already made this post on his blog :

"At the Policy and Resources Committee tonight, Councillors are being asked to approve a

new round of enhanced early retirement for Teachers in Dundee schools.

"Judging by the interest in previous rounds of early retirements, there may well be many

inquiries from serving teachers about taking up this new offer.

"But can we afford to reduce our number of serving teachers any further?

"Since this time last year we know that there are 99 fewer teachers working in our schools.

"The Director of Education's comments in the Courier last week indicate that he thinks there

is scope for a further reduction in teacher numbers as we have a favourable pupil teacher

ratio compared with other councils in urban areas.

"Additionally, the Scottish Government have threatened financial penalties if teacher numbers

were not maintained year by year by local authorities.

"So how much lower does Councillor Ken Guild (Leader of the Council and Convener of the

Finance and General Purposes Committee) think teacher numbers can fall without incurring

financial penalties?

"And how much lower does Councillor Liz Fordyce (Convener of the Education Committee)

think teacher numbers can fall without damaging attainment and achievement in our schools?

"I think we need reassuring answers to these questions before we can take a decision to

approve this new round of early retirement of teachers.

"Anything less would I think be a gamble with the future of our children."

Alcohol Awareness Week and Neddy Scrymgeour

Councillor Richard McCready

This is Alcohol Awareness Week from 14th to 20th November, to find out about work in

Dundee click here, and today 15th November is the 89th anniversary of Edwin ( Neddy)

Scrymgeour's victory over Winston Churchill in the 1922 General Election in Dundee.

It is clear that Scotland, Dundee included, has a difficult relationship with alcohol in the

twenty-first century.

Unfortunately, in some respects little has changed since Neddy Scrymgeour advocated

prohibition in the early part of the twentieth century.

Scrymgeour's solution, Prohibition was tried in the USA and proved to be impractical,

however perhaps we should see him as a figure worth reflecting on.

Although elected as a Prohibitionist MP, he took the Labour whip in the House of Commons.

In terms of the left at the time his views were close to being mainstream, the STUC

supported prohibition at this time.

For much of the 1920s his fellow MP in Dundee was Tom Johnston, the future Secretary of

State for Scotland during the Second World War.

Johnston supported Temperance and he and Scrymgeour argued over the issue throughout

the period.

Scrymgeour wanted to ban alcohol, while Johnston wanted people to make their own decision

not to drink alcohol.

Johnston was successful in making his home town of Kirkintilloch a 'dry' town.

Pubs only opened in Kirkintilloch in the 1970s.

It is clear that these two stalwarts of the left tried hard to find a solution to the problems

caused by alcohol and addiction in their day.

They realised that alcohol could be the curse of the working man, or working woman and

their families.

They recognised the problems caused in society by alcohol.

Alcohol has been joined by drugs in the twenty-first century and the problems caused by

addiction continue to be a curse on many in our society.

I think that this is an issue which the left should be looking for solutions for in the present

day.

The SNP Government has focused on the issue and their chosen solution of minimum pricing.

Price is an issue worth looking at but minimum pricing will not solve all of the problems.

Indeed prices in Scotland and prices in England are roughly similar but Scotland seems to

have worse problems with alcohol than England.

I think that we need to look at a wide range of issues and that changing the culture with

regard to alcohol in Scotland should be the priority.

This will not be easy but trying to find a way to deal with this issue is hugely important to the

future of our country.

Minimum pricing as currently proposed will add to the profits of supermarkets.

This is such an important issue to the future of our country that there should be attempts to

find a consensus on a wide range of measures which will deal effectively with alcohol abuse.

Labour should reflect on the legacy of the Labour movement in the early twentieth century

who saw alcohol abuse as one of the key scourges to be challenged in the new society they

were trying to build.

History does not repeat itself and the solutions of the 1920s are not the solutions for the

present day; but perhaps we should consider the principles which inspired people in the past

and apply them in a modern setting.

Jenny Marra MSP shows support for Dundee pensioner’s fuel poverty campaign

Jenny Marra MSP has today pledged her support to the Dundee Pensioners Forum following a

protest they staged at the Wellgate centre in Dundee about concerns for fuel poverty.

Ms Marra has been active in championing fuel poverty matters in the Scottish Parliament,

having just recently brought the matter to a debate.

In pledging her support Ms Marra stated:

"It is so often the case that pensioners are the hardest hit when it on comes to fuel poverty.

"I fully support the Dundee Pensioner’s Forum in their fight to be heard.

"We cannot leave the most vulnerable in society to choose between heating and eating this

winter.

"I share their concern that the Scottish Government has cut funding to the Energy Assistance

Package form £71million last year to just £48 million this year.

"This budget cut will mean less money available for progressive schemes such as home

insulation, which would help vulnerable groups such as the Dundee pensioners to cut their

bills and keep their homes warmer for longer.

"It is an issue I have raised in the Parliament previously, and I will do so again today in a

debate on Climate Change.

"I also have scheduled a meeting with fuel poverty charity SCARF to discuss how we can

articulate the concerns of groups like the Dundee Pensioner’s Forum to the Scottish

Government.

"I hope to meet with the Pensioners Forum shortly."

Jim McGovern hosts FBU Briefing on Delivery of Aid to Palestine

Jim McGovern, MP for Dundee West, has hosted a briefing led by Jim Malone, FBU Regional

Organiser for Scotland, about the recent FBU project to delivery fire fighting equipment to

Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank.

Two fire appliances and fire safety equipment were purchased by donations from FBU

members and supporters, and were driven from Dundee through nine countries before taking

the ferry from Greece to Haifa in Israel.

Unfortunately one fire appliances broke down in Greece and had to be left, but the second,

with all the equipment, reached Israel.

The equipment has since been impounded in Haifa for over a month, awaiting clearance from

the Israeli authorities.

Early today the Israeli authorities notified the FBU that the process to release some of the

equipment was to be sped up.

No date has yet been given for the delivery to be completed.

Jim McGovern said,

"This was a productive meeting and Jim Malone paid excellent testimony to the experiences

of the FBU team who drove the fire appliance and equipment to Israel.

"The disappointment felt that this vital equipment has yet to reach the Nablus Fire Service is

shared by everyone involved.

"When a city’s fire fighters need to share equipment because they do not have enough for

each individual is unacceptable.

"That puts lives at risk.

"The FBU’s project is commendable."

"We welcome the news that the Israeli authorities have now decided to speed up the process

of releasing the equipment, though so far some, such as the breathing apparatus, are yet to

be given approval."

"I hope the Israeli authorities work with haste to ensure that all of this potentially lifesaving

equipment reaches the Nablus Fire Service, and it is soon put to use saving lives in that city."

Call for a Rethink on Life Services Building in Whitfield

Councillor Brian Gordon and Stephen Massey

On Monday afternoon ( 21st. November), the North East Local Community Planning

Partnership will be having their quarterly meeting.

On the Agenda is the Whitfield Life Services Centre.

This was placed on the agenda at the request of Councillor Brian Gordon.

This new integrated services building is soon to be built opposite the new Balumbie Primary

School on the extended Lothian Crescent.

Alongside Health and Social Work and a Library there will be replacement facilities for the

Whitfield Community Centre which will closed when the Life Services Centre opens.

Residents in the North East, especially in Whitfield, have realised that the space available in

the new facility will be tiny by comparison with the space available in their current

Community Centre.

North East Councillor Brian Gordon said:

"Whilst some concessions have been made to the original blueprint, I do not think the groups

that use the Community Centre are nearly satisfied with the space that's on offer.

"I am concerned that we are not learning from the mistakes made in the past.

"Some long term Whitfield residents can remember the early days in Whitfield when the

estate was built without any community facilities.

"Eventually an expensive conversion was done on the former supermarket building in

Whitfield Avenue to convert it into the Activities Complex now the Community Centre.

"Residents have contacted me and are demanding a rethink on the allocation of space to the

community at the Life Services Building.

"It's not acceptable that the community space should be reduced so much.

"I hope that the Local Community Planning Partnership will support my call for a rethink.

Whitfield residents can't afford for the Council to get this wrong again."

Former Chair of the Whitfield Community Centre, Stephen Massey said:

"The square footage of space available for community use at the new Life Services Building is

tiny by comparison with the space currently available at the Community Centre.

"I am worried that many of their current range of activities in the Community Centre will not

be feasible in the reduced space allocated in the new Life Services Building.

"It can't be right that those activities will just be closed down and residents involved turned

away."