Glasgow Loses out as Labour Sits Back

During a debate on the Scottish Government’s response to the Chancellor’s Pre Budget Report today (Wednesday), former Labour Leader Wendy Alexander devoted her speech to slowly repeating the words “eight hundred and fifty thousand million pounds” in reference to the sum of taxpayers cash the UK government has ploughed into the banking system.  

Mr Doris commented: “I think everyone got the point, that £850 billion is a lot of money. An almost unimaginable sum. What I didn’t understand was why the Labour Party continue to boast at every turn about this staggering amount of cash they’ve blown propping up banks they failed so completely to regulate.

“Labour continues to make this ludicrous point about the supposed strength of the British economy. The UK is effectively bankrupt. The national debt is predicted to go over 75% of GDP, a debt we will all have to pay off no matter who is in power. Our children and their children will be paying for this mess.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has refused to forward capital spending acceleration funds to help Scotland get through the recession. With an £814.4 million cut to the Scottish budget next year, Scotland's recovery is being seriously hampered. As well as housing projects, major Glasgow infrastructure projects have missed out, including the SECC Waterfront project and the Glasgow Subway refurbishment.

Mr Doris added: “Labour aren’t at all bothered about Glasgow jobs, they’re just interested in attacking the SNP for its immeasurably better record in government. In doing so they repeatedly make derogatory and untrue claims about the economic situation in Ireland, Iceland and Norway. It is outrageous and beyond belief that they are so willing to insult our closest and more prosperous neighbours just to score some cheap points against the SNP.

"They should remember that they get paid to represent the interests of the Scottish people, not the electoral interests of Gordon Brown.”