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The Edinburgh Reporter
POLITICS
Marking 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz
by Jeremy Balfour MSP The 27th January 2020 marked 75 years since the surviving prisoners of Auschwitz were liberated from the concentration camp. I had the privilege of being able to visit Auschwitz last month and pay my respects to the 1.3 million people who suffered there at the hand of the Nazis. No matter how many times you hear accounts of visits to
Auschwitz, nothing quite prepares you for how chilling an experience it is until you are there yourself. Walking through the gates, it is almost unbearable to think about the people who entered and never left… but we have to think about it. If we do not remember those horrendous events we not only disrespect those that suffered; we risk a similar thing happening again.
SNP failing on schools
If I was struck by one thing on my visit – it was that we absolutely must do everything in our power to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. We all have a part to play in that by making sure that we act in such a way that shows tolerance to those around us no matter their religion, race, gender or any other characteristic on which we differ. As horrific as Auschwitz was, we cannot change the past. What we can and must do, is make sure that history does not repeat itself.
SNP playing catch up with the NHS by Gordon Lindhurst MSP Our NHS staff across Lothian do wonderful work day in day out across our health service. However, they are being badly let down by an SNP government which has had full control of our health service for almost 13 years. The most recent waiting time targets for NHS Lothian made for appalling reading with almost one in five patients not seen within the SNP’s four hour waiting time
target. It becomes clearer all the time that the SNP have completely failed to prepare for the future in terms of staffing and funding our health service and are now playing catch-up. That only does a disservice to patients and puts a greater pressure on our staff. I challenged the SNP Health Secretary on the failure to meet the waiting time targets
in Parliament but was met with the usual deflection answers of focusing on issues at Westminster. This is a complete dereliction of responsibility from the Health Secretary who should be looking closer to home and outlining how she will support NHS Lothian going forward. That is the least our hardworking NHS deserve from the Government.
Westminster’s airy dismissiveness by Tommy Sheppard MP The UK Government’s dismissive attitude to Scotland’s specific needs is growing increasingly tiresome. Every constructive suggestion of compromise made by the Scottish Government is flatly and high-handedly rejected. Now, the Scottish Government has put forward a detailed, viable proposal for a devolved Scottish visa system to meet Scotland’s particular demographic and economic needs. The plan has been widely welcomed by employers and industry groups, including by the Federation of Small Businesses and Scottish Council for Development and
Industry. Yet, the Westminster response has been airy dismissiveness. “Immigration will remain a reserved matter”, says the Home Office. And it isn’t the first time. Remember the Scottish Government’s well thought out, open and reasonable paper Scotland’s Place in Europe. If you recall, this outlined a way of reconciling Scotland’s overwhelming vote to remain in the European Union with the wider UK vote to leave. This would have involved Scotland continuing to be part of the UK but keeping full access to the EU single
market and retaining freedom of movement with continental Europe. This reasonable and workable compromise was dismissed out of hand by Westminster. To add insult to injury, this is very like the outcome that Boris Johnson appears to have conceded for Northern Ireland and will place Scotland at a big competitive disadvantage for inward investment. How much longer can Scotland afford to put up with a government in London that appears to care nothing for our needs and priorities?
by Daniel Johnson MSP The importance of education and a positive pupil experience is surely something that people of all political persuasions can get behind. However, the current mismanagement of our schools nationally, creates great strain on our schools locally. Lack of proper funding has seen class sizes in Edinburgh schools remain far higher than the average, with four schools in my own constituency with pupil rolls of 600 or above. The Scottish Government will site local capacity issues,
Dying for a breath of fresh air by Christine Jardine MP Another month, another set of alarming data showing Edinburgh to have the worst air pollution of any Scottish city. The analysis from the Centre for Cities claims Edinburgh also has the highest proportion of deaths attributable to pollution in Scotland, ahead of Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. More than one in 29 deaths are caused by air pollution here, with 157 deaths being directly linked to the pollutant PM2.5. These terrifying figures make it clear that we must be taking fast and direct action to tackle pollution in our city.
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but surely a responsibility of government is to properly fund education, especially for our growing capital city that is crying out for investment across the board from The Scottish Government. Constituents have shared their concerns with me about the inadequacies of education under the SNP, with standards and confidence slipping. I will always listen to the concerns of parents to how their children’s schools are run and will not shirk in my responsibility to hold The Scottish Government to account on its failed record on education.
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The Council’s City Mobility Plan includes a number of initiatives to reduce the need for private car use, but this must include a Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) that incorporates heavily polluted areas in the west of Edinburgh. And quite rightly, the Council is already under pressure to review the proposed boundaries for the new LEZ. The current plans seriously risk concentrating pollution along hotspots in the west of Edinburgh, such as St John’s Road and Queensferry Road. I urge Council members to listen to the thousands of Edinburgh residents who have already asked them for a city-wide LEZ. In light of these new figures, limiting the LEZ boundary is totally unjustifiable.
