PARTY conference season is upon us again and readers may be aware that Labour’s conference took place just a few days ago.
This conference was UK Labour’s second since coming to power 16 months ago and with Scottish Labour MPs back at the heart of the UK Government.
Clearing up the mess left by 14 years of the Tories in Westminster was never going to be easy, but the UK government has already succeeded in a number of ways.
And it is important to remember these successes – not only for North Ayrshire but for Scotland as a whole – in the midst of the noise.
The New Deal for Working People, which is currently being worked on, is the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.
It means a wage rise for thousands of regular people in North Ayrshire and across the country, an end to the scandal of fire-and-rehire and the scrapping of exploitative zero-hours contracts.
Readers may also be aware of the massive investment into North Ayrshire announced by the UK Government recently.
A whopping £21.5 million has been set aside for the council to use on a wide range of regeneration projects, which may include improving town centres, providing housing or creating jobs.
These measures have the potential to benefit so many of our friends, neighbours and colleagues – and we are right to celebrate them.
On an international level, the government has brought our country back to the top table in the world once more.
Deals with the USA, India, the EU and Norway are creating job opportunities for people across Scotland, including in North Ayrshire.
Many of us will have also seen on the news how Prime Minister Keir Starmer has led the way in calling for global peace and security.
The UK has stood with our allies and against the Russian threat, making us all safer and more secure as a result.
Some people in our area, however, will still feel that the work of change has not yet improved their lives as much as they need.
This is understandable, because people in Scotland are still being held back by a tired and out-of-touch SNP Scottish Government.
In England under Labour, NHS waiting lists are falling. In Scotland under the SNP, they are continuing to rise with one in six Scots still on an NHS waiting list.
Schools in England are now recovering after a decade of Tory misrule. In Scotland, they continue to fall down the international league tables.
In England, the UK Government is taking action to build new homes. In Scotland, the SNP is utterly failing to tackle our national housing emergency.
Scotland has already endured 18 years of the SNP in power, and I am sure most of us would agree that our country has been left in a significantly worse state as a result.
Since UK Labour came to power, the SNP Scottish Government has received a record funding settlement with an extra £5.2 BILLION to spend.
And what does it have to show for it?
Simply put, North Ayrshire and Scotland cannot afford another five years of the SNP.
We need a new direction with a Scottish Labour government.
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