As we move into British Summer Time, we can only hope that warmer weather is round the corner too, as the latest energy price cap hike, announced by UK energy regulator Ofgem earlier this year, came into being on Tuesday.
While the Scottish Government is this week setting out actions it is taking to reduce Scotland’s energy bills – a report on tackling fuel poverty in Scotland on Tuesday and a statement on the Heat in Buildings Bill on Wednesday – the fact that the UK holds the powers over price hikes means that Scotland has no say on these issues.
It means any work to insulate homes and to make them cheaper and more efficient to heat can be undone by energy price rises outwith our control.
The same can be said for the Chancellor’s Spring statement – decisions taken elsewhere that will see austerity cuts being imposed on some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Not content with these cuts, the Labour UK Government is still expected to short-change Scotland’s public services on additional employer National Insurance costs by hundreds of millions of pounds.
Sadly, despite the promise during last year’s General Election campaign of ‘Change’, the evidence is that all the change is negative. Scotland continues to be an afterthought for successive Westminster governments who remain tied to broken fiscal rules.
The Labour Party has made the wrong political choice, and it is doubling down on failure, by imposing devastating cuts and damaging tax hikes.
People in Scotland won’t forgive the Labour government for imposing a new era of cuts and pushing people into poverty, instead of delivering the investment the economy needs.
Labour urgently needs to think again and scrap these outrageous cuts.
And it’s not just the SNP that is point this out. John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, has said that stealth cuts ‘bring neither stability nor security to struggling families. They will push children into poverty across the UK, undermining the progress on child poverty being made in Scotland.’
Anna Marriott, Oxfam senior policy advisor said:
“Today marks a new low in the fight against poverty and inequality as the Government chooses to cut vital international aid and social security support for millions of people struggling at home and around the world while protecting the soaring wealth of millionaires and billionaires.”
As Scotland continues to be an afterthought to a UK Labour government fixated on the far south, it is clearer than ever that this country needs a strong SNP government to protect families and secure a pathway to independence.
This is also a time that the SNP family has been so saddened by the passing of our MSP colleague Christina McKelvie. The outpouring of grief showed us that we have lost a real champion for Scotland, a strong advocate for social justice and for independence. It is up to those of us who felt Christina’s positive influence to carry on fighting the good fight, as she always did.
This is a regular column by SNP MSP Emma Roddick. All Highlands and Islands MSPs have been offered the same space in The Orkney News to share their personal views.