SCOTTISH LABOUR MUST GET THEIR HEADS OUT THE SAND.
SNP Treasury spokesperson Stewart Hosie has welcomed the intervention of Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister on the issue of the UK Government’s planned spending cuts for the devolved administrations. Northern Ireland Finance Minister Nigel Dodd’s echoed the concerns of the Scottish and Welsh administrations over UK Government plans to cut public spending in 2010/11 and 2011/12.
Finance Minister Nigel Dodds said: “it is completely wrong and unjust that that level of funding should be reduced at this time . . . the situation is serious, and we are actively resisting it, along with the devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales.”
Last week Labour’s Finance Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government warned that Welsh public services face an 'unprecedented' £500m budget cut in 2010 as a result of Westminster cuts. To date the Labour party in Scotland have either been defending the cuts or refusing to admit they will happen.
SNP Treasury spokesperson, Stewart Hosie MP, said:
”Nigel Dodd’s intervention completes the chorus of opposition to the Prime Minister's irresponsible spending cuts in the face of recession.
”Despite their political diversity, the governments of Scotland, Wales and now Northern Ireland can all see the danger and foolishness of the Treasury’s planned cuts, why on earth won’t the prime minister recognise this.
"It would be madness, in the deepest days of the Downing Street depression, at a time when we need to support the economy, to slash spending.
"The Labour party in Scotland has no place to hide now on this issue and must now get their heads out the sand and oppose these cuts."
More information regarding this interesting story can be found below.
1. A transcript of Nigel Dodd’s comments are set out below:
Lord Morrow: I thank the Minister for his reply; however, I want to hear from him further. In his pre-Budget report, the Chancellor announced plans for further cuts in 2010-11 of approximately £5 billion. I would like to hear the Minister’s assessment of how that will impact on Northern Ireland.
The Minister of Finance and Personnel: (Nigel Dodds, MLA): I thank the Member for his question, because he raises an important issue, which I flagged up in last week’s debates. Discussion on that took place with the Scottish and Welsh Governments and others at the British-Irish Council meeting in Cardiff last Friday. The issue affects all Whitehall Departments, but it also affects all of the devolved Administrations because it is, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has indicated, a UK-wide efficiency-savings target.
Of course, he describes them as efficiency savings, but the difference, I think, is this: true efficiency savings release money to be recycled and put back into budgets; what we appear to be hearing from the Chancellor of the Exchequer are so-called efficiency savings that will not be recycled back into spending plans. That is a very serious situation. That is an issue on which, as I have indicated, we will fight with regard to its impact on Northern Ireland. The Assembly and the Executive were given a settlement under the comprehensive spending review of 2007, and it is completely wrong and unjust that that level of funding should be reduced at this time.
As I have already flagged up, that is a serious issue, because there is a clamour in Whitehall, by not just the Government but by the Opposition as well, as to which of them can cut deeper with so-called efficiencies and when that should happen, and not in just 2010-11. Indeed, the Opposition at Westminster has said that the cuts should happen from this April. One can imagine the impact that such cuts would have on the Budget of Northern Ireland without any preparation or time even to plan for that. Therefore, the situation is serious, and we are actively resisting it, along with the devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales.
2. The remarks by Rhodri Morgan are reported here:
http://www.thisissouthwales.
A taste of the harsher times will come when Wales shoulders its share of £5 billion of efficiency savings being sought by Chancellor Alistair Darling.
In a worst-case scenario, the Assembly will lose £292 million if all the cuts are made in devolved departments such as health and education.
In an interview with the Press Association, Mr Morgan said the UK Government could not yet tell him where in Whitehall the axe would fall.
"It's going to be tough. There's no doubt about that," he said.
"It's not looking terribly promising on that point."
3. Gordon MacKenzie, Lib Dem Finance Convener Edinburgh City Council (Scotland at ten, 12th Jan)
"I don't know if it'll last another year frankly because the budget Alistair Darling has trailed the extra 5 % saving on public expenditure will have a massive effect on local government if that comes through it'll cost Scottish local government about £130 million."
4. Professor David Bell, in his evidence to the Finance Committee, stated that the UK government's plans could see the Scottish Budget fall by £380m in 2010/11 alone.
Combined with the £126m that is set to come out of the health budget as a result of Barnett consequentials, this equates to half a billion pounds a year - £1 billion over two years. Prof Bell concluded:
"…with the "value for money savings", the Barnett consequentials and capital reprofiling, there will be a possibility that real public spending in Scotland will fall during 2010/11 for the first time since the early 1990s."
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