Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP Angus MacNeil has slated the last Budget of this Conservative Government which is not delivering for people and certainly has nothing for the people of the islands who are facing greater difficulties and potential depopulation in the next 30 years when islands around us outside the UK are growing their population.
Commenting Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP said:
“This is a desperate Budget from the Chancellor.
“It is hitting peoples’ living standards, growth is not happening in the UK economy, their stewardship of it has failed.
“It is another Budget recycling some of the slogans of the past 14 years.
“When you listen to it, it sounds great and then you realise there is nothing of substance to it.
“People are experiencing mortgages going up and there is a long period of GDP stagnation in the UK.
“There are no real investment strategies that would help people particularly in the energy sector to keep a pipeline of work going.
“It is very noticeable there is nothing about speeding up the payments to those impacted by the Post Office scandal.
“We know public services are cut to the bone if not the marrow by the 14 years of Tory Government to understand this properly, the amount of money that has gone to the Scottish Government is down in real terms and of course that affects what comes down to local authorities.
“The UK Government can print money at will, but they choose to cut and as a result, the Scottish Government and local authorities are making cuts in unpleasant places.
“Again, they maintain their two-child policy on children’s allowance and have taken further steps to break the social contract between peoples’ earnings and entitlements.
“In short, this Budget will not save the Tories’ skin.
“They have been very damaging to the UK and especially to Scotland and when we compare Scotland to what has been happening in Ireland, Denmark, Norway or Iceland in the last number of years we can see that we are bottom of the league because we are in the UK.
“Even the tiny Faroe Islands are building undersea tunnels, something the UK can only dream of.
“There is little to be optimistic about other than fuel tax being frozen, or National Insurance being cut from where the Tories increased it to.
“One concern is, what is Tory policy today is Labour policy tomorrow.
“There is little to help catch up with the living standards of Scotland’s independent neighbours.
“Things can be much better, and they will only be much better when we get to independence.
“We have to remember that the SNP tomorrow could cause an unscheduled Holyrood election to take us to independence and away from the mismanagement of Westminster, that is a matter in Humza Yousaf’s hands, SNP members should be pressuring him to take exactly that step.”
