SNP Lies, Corruption and Hypocrisy- add them here

[carpetmonster]

20 hours ago, Freedom Farter said:

So much greenwashing shite nowadays. 

If you greenwashed prisoners, it’d at least make escapees easy to find. Although if one was a big unit, it might raise some panic with people thinking The Incredible Hulk was on the loose. 

[CarrbridgeSaintee]

The dreadful turnout at this SNP conference shows just how far they have fallen.

Watched wee bits of some of the speakers and if that's the best the independence movement has to offer then the union is safe.

 

[GTee]

5 hours ago, CarrbridgeSaintee said:

The dreadful turnout at this SNP conference shows just how far they have fallen.

Watched wee bits of some of the speakers and if that's the best the independence movement has to offer then the union is safe.

 

Nice observation.

But f*"k  Westminster, House of Lords, Royalty, and all other establishment stuff.

[ScotiaNostra]

90 years the SNP has been trying to get us independence, at some point you gotta think maybe someone else should feckin try

[Hard Graft]

At some point the Bald Fraud will need to take some responsibility.  Firstly it was all the Tories fault and now it is all Labour's fault.  They are not the ones who have imposed council tax freezes or paid over inflation rate of pay rises at the expense of other services. Same old same old.

[jakedee]

6 minutes ago, Hard Graft said:

At some point the Bald Fraud will need to take some responsibility.  Firstly it was all the Tories fault and now it is all Labour's fault.  They are not the ones who have imposed council tax freezes or paid over inflation rate of pay rises at the expense of other services. Same old same old.

I can think of a way where the Scottish Govt. would have to take responsibility for ALL of their actions. No excuses.

Where the politicians who make the decisions are directly accountable to the electorate of their country, and can be turfed in an election.

Seems that some are still willing to allow the Scottish Govt to use the "it's all Westminsters fault" excuse.

Shame.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

1 hour ago, Hard Graft said:

At some point the Bald Fraud will need to take some responsibility.  Firstly it was all the Tories fault and now it is all Labour's fault.  They are not the ones who have imposed council tax freezes or paid over inflation rate of pay rises at the expense of other services. Same old same old.

This is disingenuous shit of the first degree. 

The UK government, the Welsh government and the NI Assembly have all settled pay disputes with above inflation wage rises because they know if they didn't then strike action would have continued indefinitely.

In any case, the groups awarded those rises have actually had a fall in real terms in wages since 2010 - the recent above inflation wage rises just scratch the surface of restoring pay to those previous levels.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

1 hour ago, jakedee said:

I can think of a way where the Scottish Govt. would have to take responsibility for ALL of their actions. No excuses.

Where the politicians who make the decisions are directly accountable to the electorate of their country, and can be turfed in an election.

Seems that some are still willing to allow the Scottish Govt to use the "it's all Westminsters fault" excuse.

Shame.

No-one is saying that but the reality is that the choices the Scottish Government can make are increasingly limited by decisions taken at Westminster.

Reducing the grant by £180million because of the changes to the winter heating allowance yet hand the Scottish Secretary £150million to do with what he likes clearly is undermining the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government.

[Shannon]

I was wondering if the SNP could simply say they are not making any cuts to public spending - £500 Million of cuts it's been reported today then say the UK will have to pay for this. Say we have balanced books for 17 years but f**k it we aren't going to and UK can bail us out as better together eh? I know that maybe won't work but seems crazy to just accept the spending we are given? Any better options?

Edited September 3 by Shannon

[Cheese]

Just Derek Hatton it?

Force Labour to either bail them out or enforce the cuts.

[strichener]

Reap what you sow.  It will be hard to explain to pensioners why they are freezing to allow train drivers to have a salary that starts at 150% of the average wage.  Or why we are having to reallocate funds from kids education to give teachers an above inflation pay increase.

We'll start seeing the impact of the SNP policy of posturing as a better employer than the UK.

Edited September 3 by strichener

[DeeTillEhDeh]

19 minutes ago, strichener said:

Reap what you sow.  It will be hard to explain to pensioners why they are freezing to allow train drivers to have a salary that starts at 150% of the average wage.  Or why we are having to reallocate funds from kids education to give teachers an above inflation pay increase.

We'll start seeing the impact of the SNP policy of posturing as a better employer than the UK.

More disingenuous shit.

[Larry Hood]

39 minutes ago, strichener said:

Reap what you sow.  It will be hard to explain to pensioners why they are freezing to allow train drivers to have a salary that starts at 150% of the average wage.  Or why we are having to reallocate funds from kids education to give teachers an above inflation pay increase.

We'll start seeing the impact of the SNP policy of posturing as a better employer than the UK.

Disgraceful post

 

[strichener]

34 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

More disingenuous shit.

Unsurprising from a teacher.  Which part is disingenuous and which parts are shit.  The government need over £800m for public sector pay increases.  Of this over £200m is a result of above inflation settlements or proposed settlements.  Is it not true that the Scottish government has taken money from the kids digital fund?  Is it also not true that teachers received a 2% pay rise in January and another 4.27% this year?

 

14 minutes ago, Larry Hood said:

Disgraceful post

 

Why?  Don't tell me, it's all Westminster's fault.  Nobody is silly enough to believe this surely?

Fiscal Update

Edited September 3 by strichener

[Cheese]

1 hour ago, strichener said:

Reap what you sow.  It will be hard to explain to pensioners why they are freezing to allow train drivers to have a salary that starts at 150% of the average wage.  Or why we are having to reallocate funds from kids education to give teachers an above inflation pay increase.

We'll start seeing the impact of the SNP policy of posturing as a better employer than the UK.

Disappointed to see the politics of envy from the woke left here.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

13 hours ago, strichener said:

Unsurprising from a teacher.  Which part is disingenuous and which parts are shit.  The government need over £800m for public sector pay increases.  Of this over £200m is a result of above inflation settlements or proposed settlements.  Is it not true that the Scottish government has taken money from the kids digital fund?  Is it also not true that teachers received a 2% pay rise in January and another 4.27% this year?

 

Why?  Don't tell me, it's all Westminster's fault.  Nobody is silly enough to believe this surely?

 

 

 

 

Fiscal Update

The 2% in January was agreed by CoSLA last year and only ran to 1 August - there has to be a new deal. The 4.27% was offered by CoSLA yesterday (not the Scottish Government) and has yet to be agreed on (although the EIS has advised it be accepted by members).  It is still below the 5.5%  pay deal offered to teachers, nurses and NHS staff in England and the 22% offered to junior doctors in England. 

You also mentioned train drivers, so, in England, they got a 5% backdated pay rise for 2022 to 2023, a 4.75% rise for 2023 to 2024, and 4.5% increase for 2024 to 2025. The National Living Wage has been increased as well up by 10% - around 30% higher than it was in 2015. It's also been increased by almost 22% for younger age bands.

In the UK, average pay is up 5% (4.9% in the private sector). The strongest pay growth was in manufacturing at 5.9%, and public sector pay at 5.6%. When adjusted for the lowest measure of inflation (the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH)), the latest figures show regular pay rose on the year by just 1%. Adjusted for RPI, wages have fallen compared to prices. 

Analysis of Office for National Statistics data shows that public sector earnings have fallen in real terms by 4.3% from 2010-2022 with some professions experiencing falls of as much as 13%.  Pay for teachers in Scotland fell by 13% between 2020 and 2019 and was still 9% in 2023 despite the pay deals in the following 4 years.

The drops in public sector pay compounded with the cost of living crisis has meant that recent wage rises for workers in the public sector only helped keep pace with inflation (just about) but did nothing to restore pay to previous levels.  Private sector median weekly pay also decreased over this time, but by a smaller rate of 1.9%.

As for the initial comment about "freezing pensioners" that is well worn ground.  It isn't the Scottish Government who decided that only 11% of pensioners would get the winter fuel payment.  It is a direct consequence of the UK making a consequential cut in the Scottish block grant - they had no option but to follow suit, as they have done in Wales and Northern Ireland.  To then see the Secretary of State for Scotland then handed £150million to with what he wants makes is a double smack in the face.

The Scottish Government, unlike Westminster, has to balance the books, and tough choices have had to be made this year - just like tough choices were made to cushion the worst excesses of austerity.  

Yes, there have been choices which should not have been made - last year's council tax freeze being a prime example, but the reality is that we've had 14 years of austerity and robbing Peter to pay Paul to mitigate austerity.  It's no surprise that at some point (just as local authorities have found) there is no more meat left on the bone to cut.

The only one here who is silly is you to believe the bullshit emanating from Rachel Reeves and Ian Murray.

Edited September 4 by DeeTillEhDeh

[Lurkst]

Serves the SNP right for deliberately improving services.

 

[strichener]

5 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

The 2% in January was agreed by CoSLA last year and only ran to 1 August - there has to be a new deal. The 4.27% was offered by CoSLA yesterday (not the Scottish Government) and has yet to be agreed on (although the EIS has advised it be accepted by members).  It is still below the 5.5%  pay deal offered to teachers, nurses and NHS staff in England and the 22% offered to junior doctors in England. 

You also mentioned train drivers, so, in England, they got a 5% backdated pay rise for 2022 to 2023, a 4.75% rise for 2023 to 2024, and 4.5% increase for 2024 to 2025. The National Living Wage has been increased as well up by 10% - around 30% higher than it was in 2015. It's also been increased by almost 22% for younger age bands.

In the UK, average pay is up 5% (4.9% in the private sector). The strongest pay growth was in manufacturing at 5.9%, and public sector pay at 5.6%. When adjusted for the lowest measure of inflation (the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH)), the latest figures show regular pay rose on the year by just 1%. Adjusted for RPI, wages have fallen compared to prices. 

Analysis of Office for National Statistics data shows that public sector earnings have fallen in real terms by 4.3% from 2010-2022 with some professions experiencing falls of as much as 13%.  Pay for teachers in Scotland fell by 13% between 2020 and 2019 and was still 9% in 2023 despite the pay deals in the following 4 years.

The drops in public sector pay compounded with the cost of living crisis has meant that recent wage rises for workers in the public sector only helped keep pace with inflation (just about) but did nothing to restore pay to previous levels.  Private sector median weekly pay also decreased over this time, but by a smaller rate of 1.9%.

As for the initial comment about "freezing pensioners" that is well worn ground.  It isn't the Scottish Government who decided that only 11% of pensioners would get the winter fuel payment.  It is a direct consequence of the UK making a consequential cut in the Scottish block grant - they had no option but to follow suit, as they have done in Wales and Northern Ireland.  To then see the Secretary of State for Scotland then handed £150million to with what he wants makes is a double smack in the face.

The Scottish Government, unlike Westminster, has to balance the books, and tough choices have had to be made this year - just like tough choices were made to cushion the worst excesses of austerity.  

Yes, there have been choices which should not have been made - last year's council tax freeze being a prime example, but the reality is that we've had 14 years of austerity and robbing Peter to pay Paul to mitigate austerity.  It's no surprise that at some point (just as local authorities have found) there is no more meat left on the bone to cut.

The only one here who is silly is you to believe the bullshit emanating from Rachel Reeves and Ian Murray.

Ah the poor public sector.   The IFS estimate that the average public sector worker in Scotland earned around 9% more than an equivalent private sector worker in 2019-2021.  At the same time, the average public sector worker in Scotland is around 10% better off than those in England.  I note that you called my initial post disingenuous whilst posting that this years offer to public sector staff is lower in Scotland that England whilst completely omitting that Scottish public sector workers are already paid more than the equivalent roles in England.  That is disingenuous.

Quote

Over the last few years the Scottish Government has generally increased public sector pay by a higher percentage than was the case in England. This has the consequence that subsequent pay awards are more costly. For example, if teachers in Scotland are more highly paid than in England, then an equivalent percentage rise in teacher salaries will be more costly to implement in Scotland. This further contributes to the pressures of public sector pay on the budget.

As for believing the bullshit from Labour, I haven't been listening to them.  I have been listening to the Scottish Government yet again throwing the blame around and taking absolutely no responsibility for the choices they have made.  Nobody forced them to budget for 2% pay increases and then offer more.  Nobody forced them to freeze council tax.  Here is an extract from the Fiscal Update -

Quote

In our December 2023 report we noted that the Scottish Government had “not set a formal guideline for public sector pay for 2024-25” and that “the average public sector pay award in 2023-24 was 6.5 per cent, 3 percentage points higher than the Scottish Government had estimated in May 2023”.7 If a Budget is set based on pay assumptions which are lower than those that materialise, this creates challenges with in-year management of the Budget, requiring the Government to reduce its planned spending on services. The recent emergency spending controls the Scottish Government has put in place for 2024-25 are the result of those challenges.

That isn't Rachel Reeves or Ian Murray but the official independent economic forecaster of the Scottish Administration. 

[strichener]

14 hours ago, Cheese said:

Disappointed to see the politics of envy from the woke left here.

Utterly bizarre take.

[Freedom Farter]