“THIS IS NOT LEVELLING UP, ITS SHORING UP THE TORIES AND THE UNION” – MACASKILL
“STICKING PLASTER WILL NOT COVER THE GAPING WOUND OF BREXIT” – HANVEY
ALBA Westminster Leader Neale Hanvey MP and ALBA Depute Leader Kenny MacAskill MP have responded to the announcement today (Thursday) on the allocation of levelling up funds.
In a statement Neale Hanvey, MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath said:
“While funding for important projects is always welcome the reality is that this fund is a mere sticking plaster to cover the gaping wound of EU funding that has been lost since Brexit. What this announcement fails to address is the many projects who didn’t secure funding or have had to close as EU funds have run out.
“Between 2014-2020 , Scotland was allocated up to €944 million in structural funding from the EU. The money announced today fails to plug the gap in the financial support that Scotland has lost due to Westminster’s decision to drag Scotland out of the EU against the expressed will of the Scottish people.
“Yes funding for Fife is welcome but yards will remain idle when they should be booming with construction work for the renewables sector. That’s why we need Independence so that we can use our massive energy resources to power our economy and heat the homes of our people who are living in fuel poverty.”
Continuing ALBA Depute Leader and MP for East Lothian Kenny MacAskill said:
“Of course those communities that have been crying out for investment will welcome any extra funds but let us be clear this is small beer not a bonanza. Scotland is being fleeced of its massive renewable energy resources, with our energy being transmitted down south, from Torness and Peterhead, and yet we are expected to be grateful when we receive the crumbs from the Master’s table.
“Many good Scottish bids, like Glasgow’s have been unsuccessful whilst London and the South East of England have been granted double the money that Scotland has. How can this scheme be described as levelling up when the most prosperous parts of the UK are being granted the most?
“This scheme is not about levelling up communities but rather about shoring up support in Tory constituencies. This is nothing more than a cynical political exercise by the UK Government to bolster support for the Union by wrapping these funds in the Union Jack.”
Scotland’s industries will be hard-hit right across the board and in every local authority area, some worse than others, and there never was any hope in hell of the UKG ever being able to plug the gaps left in the funding that came to Scotland, in particular.
However, I think that rejoining the EU would be very difficult for a variety of reasons, the least being that we have been pulled out of so many areas that it will be extremely difficult to keep up now.
The cost of rejoining alone would be prohibitive to a new Scotland’s economy. Far better, in my opinion, to join one of the affiliated organisations, at least at first. Personally, I have always felt an affinity with Europe, but I campaigned against entry because Scotland was not being given a voice, but dragged in on England’s coattails.
That was SNP policy at the time. Once in, it seemed churlish to not make the best of it, but the movement to become closer and closer to a unitary EU did worry me, and it scared England.
We would be mad to go it alone in an independent Scotland now because the world is shrinking, and, even if we left the Union, I can still envisage a loose alliance with the other UK parts.
We could even create one, as the Scandinavians have done without relinquishing their individual autonomy. I think would be entirely beneficial even as we forged new links with Europe and other parts of the world.
Why not? We did it before 1707? 300+ years of being part of the UK has not lessened the desire for independence, but it has led to much intermarriage between Scots and rUK, and a great deal of exchanging of residence, so we have to reassure those who have moved here from other parts of the UK, from Europe and other parts of the world, that they will still be welcome in our newly-minted Scotland.
We can do that by reassuring them that ties will not be severed completely with everyone else and that it will not be made difficult for them to visit across borders and that we will forge new commercial alliances where we can, and if they are in our best interests. Other than those provisos, we now need to bring forward our independence ASAP, but, it is to be hoped, not with this SNP/Green administration at the helm.
A wee bit off topic here so I will make it short. Did anybody pick up Sturgeon at FM Non-Answers that “She will try her best to stop WM using the S35”. Is this the beginning of backing down from the court. Dorothy Bain looked very sheepish leaving the building the other day.
Watch Prism this Sunday and that question will be answered for you. We have one of Scotland’s leading Advocates as a guest.
Will do as I usually do on a Sunday evening mind you we are putting the Hibs to bed on Sunday but it might be Monday.lol
Yes, noted. She just did not expect that Westminster would step in and is now rowing back and trying to make it an independence/colonial issue. It simply isn’t. This legislation would affect every piece of legislation on equality right across the board in the whole of the UK. If ‘trans’ identified men (all men if self-ID comes in, which this bill promulgates) can be deemed to be legally ‘women’, the the protected sex category of biological female disappears overnight. That is the case. That is why women are so angry. This stuff has ramifications way beyond the GRRB.
What we have seen in Holyrood, and what we saw yesterday in Westminster where female MSPs and MPs have been treated with absolute disdain signals absolute contempt for women’s concerns across the board. So sick of the braying misogyny that accompanies every word by female representatives. Women should think seriously now about removing their support for and votes from all the mainstream parties and set up their own party to deal with all aspects of legislation – because all legislation has an impact on us. We should be looking to start using our power – the non-physical kind – and making it count. Abandon all these mainstream parties that have let us down time and time again.
Aye, Nicola Sturgeon, where’s Dame Helena Kennedy’s report on establishing hate crime and misogyny against females? Quietly dropped while you pander to men in frocks’ (“the most marginalised and vulnerable in society’s”) sensibilities?
I always watch Prism on Sunday. Special. But this one sounds extra special!
👍I trust we won’t disappoint. We have a smashing panel this week.
Now is the time to DEMAND independence.
We’re taking it out of the politicians hands.
Choose yer doors as yer knockin’ on em:
We’re not asking, we’re telling.
7am is soon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYVWOPkwu6o