Viceroy Murray defends more austerity for Scotland
Published in the August 3rd edition of the Edinburgh Evening News.
What a clever ploy, Viceroy Murray. Responsibility for the Winter Fuel payment will be transferred to Holyrood which now has to find an extra £100 million to mitigate Reeves’ cuts. Scotland’s Block Grant (a partial return of money Scotland sends to Westminster) will be reduced because of Reeves’ austerity - that’s how it works, folks. But who gets the blame if the Scottish Administration can’t find the money in its limited budget that must be balanced annually? That’s right - Holyrood.
So, Scots pensioners, who live in the coldest nation and pay the highest energy prices in this disunited kingdom, will suffer the consequences. Neither Reeves nor Murray shows any concern for the people who will have to be treated for hypothermia this winter, piling more pressure onto the Scottish NHS. Viceroy Murray will intone that Scotland receives the most from Westminster’s shrinking pot, so we shouldn’t complain.
What’s the source of Viceroy Murray’s lack of empathy? He claims he entered politics because his mother’s MP, Malcolm Rifkind, had promised to do something about the damp in the family’s Wester Hailes flat, but didn’t. As a consequence, he said his family was very anti-Tory so it’s ironic that Murray is defending a continuation of Tory austerity.
Austerity not only shrinks the economy - it kills people. Between 2011-19, there were over a million premature deaths outside the wealthiest parts of England. Scotland’s excess mortality is even worse and predates 2010. Compared to England and Wales, the number of people dying prematurely (0-64 years) in Scotland increased by more than three-fold between 1981 and 2011, from 6% to 20%.
Deprivation explains some of the disparity. The rest is attributed to the ‘democratic deficit,’ which makes people feel despondent, disempowered, and lacking a sense of control; Scottish Office regional economic policy that failed to deliver economic growth; and the profound experience of deindustrialisation under Thatcher.
It should be clear by now that things will only get worse until the Scottish People decide to use their sovereign power to end this failing union.
Luckily, I have a strong constitution, otherwise I think I might have a stroke from the anger these ANTI-labour party apparatchiks engender in me.
Scheming, lying, troughing, I can't say anymore it would unprintable. The BritNat state never lost their colonial mentality at all did they, their EngGBUKOK are a cunning lot, very scheming, and very sleekit.
They know many people in Scotland will have no clue about the shape shifters', the LabCons' trickery!
SNP will absolutely need to get the message out loud and clear about the tricks that the LabourCons deploying, they are like pirates, in a way it is a type of piracy, they took over the ship centuries ago, and are taking the rest of the silver until there is nothing left.
As regards the money 'sent' to EngLondonGB, I tend to say it's TAKEN not sent, and a few crumbs sent back with a kick in the...you know what's, the English government saying, be grateful sweaty Jocks! LOLZ!
Thanks for the article Leah I will share hope this gets the attention it needs to alert folks to the underhand tricks the EngGB Labcons are using now.