TAX CREDIT VOTING

MAKE SURE YOU CAN VOTE

As Abu Haimi Abu Hassan pointed out in the last post, there have been many stories of people finding themselves to be no longer on the electoral register in Scotland, following the changes which were ordered by Westminster and covering the whole of the union. 

I even read a tweet about a person receiving a letter from a local MP welcoming two new voters at his address...when there had been no changes to his household.

Now it appears that the Cabinet Secretary for Social Welfare, Alex Neil, has found that, despite voting at all elections and in the Independence referendum from his address of 28 years, he no longer appears on the register.

I'm not suggesting any jiggery pokery here. The changes were actually brought in by the UK government to try to stamp out corruption in the voting system. Previously the head of the household registered each person in his or her home. This gave folk the opportunity to invent non-existent members of their household, claim postal voting privilege, and thus distort the vote.

Now it is the responsibility of every person to register themselves, and to do so with their National Insurance number adn proof of identity.

You should have had a letter in October to inform you whether you needed to do this or not (presumably if you live alone there would be no need to update). Even if you responded to that letter (as you imagine Alex Neil would have), it may be necessary to make a check.

According to the Electoral Commission:  “Anyone who registered for the independence referendum will remain registered unless they have moved address”. However, that claim is contradicted by the experiences of Airdrie and Shotts MSP Neil and Highlands MSP Rob Gibson. 

To be safe Munguin and I suggest that you contact the Electoral Services or Electoral Registration department of your local council to ensure that you are eligible to vote. You may be able to do this on line. There's no point in waiting till the day of the election and finding yourself turned away.

This election is far too important to allow that to happen, no matter how you intend to vote.

THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO CONTROL OUR FINANCES

So, those of us who can be forgiven for thinking that the removal of Lansley from the English health brief last week was the precursor to a U-turn on dismantling the NHS, were wrong.

The man who replaces him has even co-authored a book which says that service is no longer relevant.

It probably isn't to people as rich as Mr Hunt, but what a short memory Mr Cameron must have.

Of course, this, at first glance, has nothing at all to do with us. The NHS in Scotland is a separate institution, working on similar principles, but travelling  in a different direction from its English partner since 2007. It is run at political level by a Cabinet Secretary for Health and Well-Being. Co-incidentally, the holder of that post was also shuffled this week when Nicola Sturgeon was replaced by Alex Neil.

Under devolution, the Health Service in Scotland receives from the central UK pot of taxes, a Barnett formula proportion of the money spent on the English service. (Of course it is part of a block grant which covers all of the devolved departments, and the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Finance makes a decision about how much of that grant is spent on the HNS in Scotland). However, the overall grant would shrink if the English NHS were to be replaced by a private insurance-based scheme.

Thus if a devolved Scotland wished to carry on with no questions medical treatment, free at the point of delivery, there would likely be less money with which to do it.

Devolved we may be, but many a decision taken in by English ministers, even on functions which are devolved, reflects upon our abilities to deliver that service in the way that we would want.

That is why we need control of our own finances. That way we have no multi-millionaire Tories telling us that free treatment is no longer a priority for Scots.

*Click on image to enlarge.

Minister and Convenor Open New Dundee Housing Project

Something cheered me hugely today. Alex Neil the Housing Minister and Dundee’s Housing Convenor Jimmy Black, opened the new building project in Mains Loan, Dundee, and laid the first stones. This project will build the first council houses in Dundee for 20 years. Initially seven family homes will be built and three wheelchair friendly units, with more in the pipeline.

Councillor Black said: "It is a significant event, marking the start of Dundee's first new council house builds for at least two decades and the Scottish Government funding will help the city achieve its aim of providing more than 70 new council homes over the next few years.

"The new homes that are planned will help address a shortage of family homes and houses that are designed to make life easier for people with disabilities.

"All the houses have been designed to provide high standards of energy efficiency through increased insulation levels which exceed current building regulation requirements. This should mean lower heating costs for tenants, better noise insulation and help achieve carbon-saving targets."

According to Joe Fitzpatrick, one of Dundee’s MSPs, in the last year the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with £75 million to build 2,300 new council houses and the planned radical legislation to end the right to buy for new social housing will ensure that those new homes remain accessible, affordable and available for future generations.

For far too long, in my opinion, the standard of council housing in Dundee has been too low. The best ones were long since bought and profits made on them. What has been left was the slum property in the least desirable areas, and some semi derelict multi-storey properties. There was a desperate need for new council housing. It is good to know that once they are built they will not be sold off cheap.

As an added bonus this project is providing employment opportunities for the builders, a local construction firm. It’s just a win win win situation.

Well done to the Scottish Government and Dundee City Council.

Pics: Jimmy Black; Alex Neil; Joe Fitzpartick

BBC FORCED TO APOLOGISE TO SNP MINISTER, BUT DOES IT IN A WHISPER

I received this information by email this morning. I am reproducing it in full from the Newsnet mail. It is yet another example of how the BBC makes misleading statements about the SNP. Even when forced to apologise they seem to manage to do so in a quiet and backhanded way. Hopefully Newsnet will get an answer as to why the apology was not broadcast, although the misleading, well actually lying, statement was.


BBC Apologises To SNP Minister

Newsnet Scotland can reveal that the BBC have been forced to issue a personal apology to senior SNP MSP Alex Neil after an item broadcast on Sunday 18th October attributed views to the SNP Minister that he had not expressed.


The BBC’s Catriona Renton (above), filming at the SNP conference in Inverness, had claimed on BBC Scotland’s Politics Show that Mr Neil had confirmed the SNP’s desire to see David Cameron become the Prime Minister at the next general election. The recorded interview with Mr Neil that followed Ms Renton’s claim contained no such confirmation.


A source close to Mr Neil explained that the MSP had subsequently complained to the BBC and had received an apology. However, there was a feeling of frustration that, unlike the inaccurate broadcast which came in the midst of the Glasgow North East by-election campaign, the BBC had refused to broadcast the apology.


Catriona Renton is a former Glasgow Labour Councillor, who represented Kelvindale before being ousted by the LibDems in 2003. Ms Renton went on to represent Labour in both the 2003 Holyrood elections and the 2004 European elections.


Ms Renton’s background is steeped in politics having worked for an MEP in Brussels as part of her Oxford University course. Her first job after graduating was working for ex Labour MP Dennis Canavan.


Catriona Renton was recruited by BBC Scotland's parliamentary unit in 2006, where John Boothman, husband of Labour MSP and ex-Health Minister Susan Deacon, was a senior producer.


Questions will surely be asked as to why someone with such recent and very close links to the Labour party in Scotland has been allowed such a high profile platform within BBC Scotland’s political department and whether her professional judgement may have been compromised.


Newsnet Scotland has contacted the BBC for an explanation of why the apology was not broadcast and what editorial control was exercised over Ms Renton’s inaccurate statement....the BBC have yet to respond.



Update: I have been advised that my original picture was not of Ms Renton. I have been unable to verify whether it was or not. It certainly masqueraded as such on Google Images. If it was not then I apologise. I have withdrawn it and replaced it with another image, again purporting to be of her. As I have no idea what she looks like, I can only hope that I have got it right this time. There, that's how you do it BBC!