GLASGOW LABOUR MSPs CHALLENGED ON PRIORITIES – EDUCATION OR GARL?

GLASGOW LABOUR MSPs CHALLENGED ON PRIORITIES – EDUCATION OR GARL?

CLOSING GLASGOW SCHOOLS IS THE DAGGER IN GLASGOW’S HEART

DO THEY REALLY WANT ANOTHER TRAMS FIASCO?

Glasgow SNP MSP Bob Doris has challenged Glasgow Labour MSPs to say what they would cut after emphatically saying that the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) should be reinstated into the budget.

This is despite the fact that GARL was going massively over budget like the trams scheme in Edinburgh and despite the fact Glasgow Labour have the best funding settlement of any mainland council in Scotland – 31% per head more than South Lanarkshire and 23% more than North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire. Yet they refuse to employ more teachers and are closing schools.

Mr Doris, a former Glasgow teacher who has been active in campaigning against Labour’s closure programme in Glasgow, has criticised Glasgow Labour for their appalling record in employing teachers and closing schools whilst wanting to waste hundreds of millions on an out of control project.

Questions remain as to whether the Labour party in the Scottish Parliament will propose reinstating GARL into the budget. If so it would mean funding would have to be cut elsewhere.

It has been reported that Labour leader Iain Gray said that he did not regard GARL as a “deal-breaker” in deciding whether Labour MSPs will vote for the Scottish Government's Budget. This was criticised by Labour insiders at Glasgow City Council who accused him of being “Edinburgh-orientated”. However then Iain Gray’s position changed to describing GARL as now being “potentially a deal-breaker”.

Commenting Mr Doris said:

“With Labour’s government in London cutting Scottish spending by £500 million and the costs of GARL escalating cancelling the project was the only option before it became another trams fiasco like we have seen in Edinburgh.

“People I meet are aghast that the costs to just move the fuel dump at the airport escalated from £8 million to £70 million. They also tell me that the real dagger in the heart of Glasgow has been Labour’s school closure programme and the council's failure to invest in new teachers and smaller classes.

“Yet Labour MSPs think it will be a good idea to carry on with spending on an out of control project whilst closing schools! How can they justify this when their government is cutting £500 million from the Scottish budget? How can they justify it when Glasgow receives the most funding per head of all Scottish mainland councils?

“It is simple hypocrisy to call for the reinstatement of that project whilst Glasgow enjoys the best funding per head of any mainland Scottish council yet fails to employ more teachers whilst closing schools.

“If the Labour party are intent on putting GARL back into the budget they must answer where they will make the corresponding cuts to pay for it?

"Will they want the funding to come from the SNP Government's funding commitment to Fastlink which will connect people and facilities all over the city, and bring much greater benefit to people across Glasgow?

"Or will it come from other major projects the SNP Government is delivering in Glasgow - the M74, the new Southern General Hospital, the National Indoor Sports Arena and all the Commonwealth Games facilities, and new colleges?

“The Scottish Government published a draft Budget, and Labour now have every opportunity to propose costed alternatives.

"If their Holyrood leadership fail to propose reinstating GARL in Budget amendments and explain what they would cut to pay for it, Labour will be exposed as guilty of the most disgraceful hypocrisy in Glasgow, and Steven Purcell won’t have a leg to stand on.”