COST OF SCHOOL DINNERS SPARKS INDEPENDENCE DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT

If anyone needs an explanation of why Scotland would benefit from being an independent country, it comes in the fact that, as was confirmed yesterday, the spending review is predicated on an attack on the poorest and the most vulnerable in our society by a Labour Government.

Anyone who was thinking that attacks on the poor and the vulnerable in our society were the exclusive preserve of the Conservative Party got a rude awakening yesterday, because they are the preserve of the Labour Party into the bargain.

The answer to the seesaw politics of Westminster attacking the poor and the vulnerable is for Scotland to be an independent country. The sooner that happens, the better. First Minister John Swinney

By Bill Heaney

The words above, spoken by John Swinney, Scotland’s First Minister, were music to the ears of those members of the electorate who can’t see Independence come soon enough.

And they appear to be a growing band who are gathering together and girding their loins in preparation for an election onslaught next May from Nigel Mansell’s Reform UK Party, who ran the SNP to a too close for comfort finishing line in a West Dunbartonshire by-election last month.

Many people in the Dumbarton constituency are predicting that Labour’s high profile Dame Jackie Baillie will have trouble holding on to the Holyrood seat she has held for 25 years since the inception of the Scottish Parliament.

Reform UK’s prospective candidate is David Smith, who lives and Dumbarton, and who leads the local branch of Farage’s party, which is said to be growing daily.

Scottish Labour’s Dame Jackie Baillie and Reform UK prospective candidate in Dumbarton constituency David Smith.

The first signs that local electors have had enough – more than enough, some would say – of the Labour Party and the Conservatives came during First Minister’s Questions in Edinburgh on Thursday.

Lorna Slater MSP, who shares the leadership of the Green Party with Dumbarton man Patrick Harvie, told the chamber: “Kids cannot learn if they are hungry. That is why the Greens campaigned for universal free school meals for primary 4 and 5 kids and for the expansion to primary 6 and 7 kids whose families receive the Scottish child payment.

Green Party leaders Lorna Slater and Dumbarton man Patrick Harvie.

“It is why we brought the next phase of roll-out to secondary 1, 2 and 3 kids who receive the SCP to the budget negotiations.

“In August, thousands more high school kids will now get free school meals. Does the First Minister agree that the programme must be expanded to all council areas as soon as possible to ensure that no kid goes hungry in school?”

John Swinney replied: “I unreservedly accept the importance of food provision in our schools and tackling the issue of children who come to school hungry.

“Ensuring that children have a good and solid meal during the day is addressed as part of the Government’s policy programme, so there is no disagreement between Lorna Slater and me on that question.

“The Government has taken pragmatic decisions within the finances that are available to us to expand the programme to primary 6 and 7 pupils who are eligible for the Scottish child payment, and we are obviously taking forward the pilot exercises for secondary pupils, which were the subject of constructive dialogue with the Green Party during the budget negotiations.”

Pursuing the popular line that the way to a voter’s support is through their child’s stomach, Mr Swinney added: “I am committed to doing as much as we can. The Parliament will be familiar with the financial challenges that we face, which were not eased by the [UK government] spending review.

“We will, of course, engage constructively with other parties about how we can take forward the important commitments to enhance the educational opportunities of children and young people in Scotland.”

Lorna Slater added: “Expanding free school meals is one way to build the fairer, greener country that we know Scotland can be.

“However, children in Scotland will still be forced into poverty thanks to a Labour Government that is balancing the books on the backs of the poorest while the wealthiest grow ever richer.

“The United Kingdom Government could have scrapped the cruel two-child benefit cap this week, but it did not. Scotland is tired of mitigating Westminster’s mistakes.

“Does the First Minister agree that now is the time to demand that Keir Starmer set out exactly what conditions he believes need to be met to trigger an independence referendum for Scotland, so that we can get out of this unequal union?”

Mr Swinney said he agreed with Lorna Slater about the importance of Scotland becoming an independent country.

To loud expressions of dismay on the Labour and Tory benches, he added: “I think that it is democratically unacceptable for the will of the Scottish Parliament, which has demanded the power to hold a referendum on independence, to be ignored by the United Kingdom Government. I agree entirely with Lorna Slater on that point.

“If anyone needs an explanation of why Scotland would benefit from being an independent country, it comes in the fact that, as was confirmed yesterday, the spending review is predicated on an attack on the poorest and the most vulnerable in our society by a Labour Government.

“Anyone who was thinking that attacks on the poor and the vulnerable in our society were the exclusive preserve of the Conservative Party got a rude awakening yesterday, because they are the preserve of the Labour Party into the bargain.

“The answer to the seesaw politics of Westminster attacking the poor and the vulnerable is for Scotland to be an independent country. The sooner that happens, the better.”