Glasgow to lose out again

Bob Doris MSP has described as ‘scandalous’ the comments of Labour Leader Ian Gray as he confirmed his support for Alasdair Darling’s refusal for capital acceleration spending for Scotland. The SNP MSP had supported calls across all political parties for stimulus funding, which would have created jobs and seen extra affordable housing for Glasgow over the coming year.

“After generations of neglect, this city is crying out for affordable family housing. For every 6 million that Darling refuses to hand over, that’s 100 less homes being built. Accelerating spending would have meant more cash for housing projects as well as numerous other infrastructure projects that had been identified by the Scottish Government.

“The much needed Glasgow Subway refurbishment and the SECC Waterfront project, worth £5 million to the city alone, were identified as priorities by the SNP Government for the accelerated spending programme.

“Labour continues to attack the SNP for cancelling the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, a decision which was forced by Alistair Darling’s shocking settlement for Scottish finance. Labour is clinging to its ‘attack is the best line of defence’ strategy for the time being.

“As Glasgow City Council prepares to make 4,000 of its own staff redundant, people in Glasgow are going to be asking hard questions about where all the money has gone. The whole lot has gone up in smoke.

“Overspending at every level of government for the past decade was followed by unimaginable sums of tax-payers money given to prop up the financial system that Labour failed to regulate and blamed everyone else for.

“At the very time stimulus funds are required to aid Scottish economic recovery, Scotland and Glasgow are getting another spanner in the works. The bill for Labour’s decade of decadence has landed on the mat and Glasgow looks set to pay dearly.”