ALEX SALMOND VISITS FALKIRK JOBS SUCCESS STORY

ALEX SALMOND VISITS FALKIRK JOBS SUCCESS STORY

ELECT A LOCAL CHAMPION TO PROTECT SCOTLAND FROM LONDON CUTS

PRESSURE BUILDS ON LONDON MACHINE POLITICIANS TO STOP HIDING THEIR CUTS AGENDA

SNP Leader Alex Salmond today (Wednesday), joined SNP candidates for Falkirk, John McNally and Linlithgow and Falkirk East, Tam Smith on a visit to the HEROtsc call centre in Larbert.

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The call centre which employs 300 people was at threat of closure in April 2009 but HEROtsc, with SNP Government support, secured a new contract with SKY enabling the centre to continue its operations in Falkirk.

But Mr Salmond warned that success stories like HEROstc are threatened by the hidden and shared cuts agenda of the London politicians, underlined by yesterday’s Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) report which criticised Labour, the Tories and the LibDems for failing to come clean on the scale of their proposed cuts.

Mr Salmond said:

“HEROtsc is a fantastic Scottish success story – and their continuing success is testament to the skill and dedication of the workforce. Throughout the downturn, the SNP Government has done everything it could to support jobs in Scotland and HEROtsc is testament to that.

“But economic recovery is threatened by all the London politicians and their attempts to hide their shared cuts agenda.

“The London-based politicians think they can get away with concealing the extent of their cuts agenda from the electorate in this election,. However the information is now out in the public domain – thanks to the SNP Government's report and the IFS study – and Labour, the Tories and LibDems must now come clean.

“On the basis of Treasury growth forecasts, UK cuts over the next 12 years will be £250 billion. And on the basis of slower UK growth – which the latest figures indicate is the case – we are talking about cuts of some £370 billion over the 15 years it will take until spending reaches the 2009/10 levels in real terms.

“The London parties are merely debating the tip of the iceberg on television – they are desperate to hide the scale of UK cuts from the people before 6 May. No wonder they conspired like typical machine politicians to keep the SNP and Plaid Cymru off the airwaves.

“Their position is now untenable, and Labour, the Tories and the LibDems must all be challenged on they will respond, and what exactly they are proposing for our key public services.”

Mr Salmond added:

“The key issue over the next nine days is ensuring that political choices and priorities are changed from the intentions of the London politicians, to ensure that the cuts fall on the things that the people of Scotland neither need nor want – Trident, ID cards, and a nuclear waste dump – and that our public services are protected.

“The London politicians – Tweedledee, Tweedledum and TweedleDem – are all tied into cuts of this scale. And the Tories would even impose an extra ‘Cameron cut’ on Scotland, by forcing through a worse funding formula without the consent of the Scottish Government or people – against the Treasury’s own rules.

“That is why ‘more nats means less cuts’, because only the SNP stand for dumping wasteful spending on Westminster vanity projects, protecting our great public services, and charting a course to Scottish prosperity.”

SNP candidate for Falkirk John McNally added:

“SNP MPs at Westminster will work to bring more control over employment policy back to the Scottish Parliament so we can bring together job centres and skills agencies to make sure local communities get coordinated support.

“This simple move would enhance the existing partnership arrangements, reduce bureaucracy and overlap and mean more time and resources are available to support people into work.”