For the sake of her government’s credibility, Sturgeon must remove John Swinney as Scottish Education Secretary.
Source: Why Nicola Sturgeon’s apology over Scotland’s exams calamity isn’t enough : New Statesman
Tag: SNP
Amber Rudd resigns from Cabinet and quits Tory party as she hits out at Boris Johnson’s purge | Daily Mail Online
- Rudd said there was ‘no evidence’ to suggest Johnson was seeking an EU deal
- She said she ‘could not stand’ for the dismissal of 21 Tory rebels last week
- Ms Rudd called the exiles ‘good, strong conservatives with progressive values’
- In addition to quitting Cabinet she stood by them by surrendering the whip
Cabinet Minister Amber Rudd resigned from the Tory Party last night in protest at Boris Johnson’s sacking of the rebel Tory MPs who voted last week to block a No Deal Brexit.
In a devastating parting salvo, the Pensions Secretary — one of only a handful of Remain supporting Ministers in Mr Johnson’s Cabinet — said she thought there was ‘no evidence’ that Mr Johnson was trying to strike a deal with Brussels.
Announcing that she would be standing as an independent Conservative in her Hastings and Rye constituency, Ms Rudd attacked the Prime Minister’s decision to deselect 21 Tory rebels as an ‘assault on decency and democracy’.
Ms Rudd was criticised by her former Remain allies after pivoting to sign up to Mr Johnson’s Cabinet and backing his pledge to leave the EU ‘do or die’ and had been under huge pressure over her ‘pivot.’
Thousands turned away from benefit assessments due to staff shortages : Welfare Weekly
DWP staff shortages are causing thousands of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants to be sent home unseen from health assessment appointments.
Figures revealed by a DWP minister show that in 2018, 5,700 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants attended their health assessment, only to be turned away due to the unavailability of a health professional .
PIP, which replaced the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) has been widely condemned by experts, charities, and front-line services, with some saying the controversial new system shows a “lack of humanity” from the Tory government, and has caused a culture of “inherent distrust” of the welfare system.
Source: Thousands turned away from benefit assessments due to staff shortages : Welfare Weekly
Brexit ‘has not moved minds’ on indyref question, says Sir John Curtice – The Scotsman
The country’s leading pollster has insisted there is no evidence to support claims by the SNP that there has been a rise in support for a second independence referendum despite the ongoing turmoil surrounding Brexit.
Sir John Curtice told The Scotsman that recent polls on the issue indicated that Scots continue to be divided at around 45 per cent in favour of separation and 55 per cent wanting to remain in the UK – a level unchanged since the result of the independence referendum in September 2014.
Source: Brexit ‘has not moved minds’ on indyref question, says Sir John Curtice – The Scotsman
Virgin handed £2bn worth of NHS England contracts : Welfare Weekly
This week’s news that £2 billion worth of NHS England contracts are being handed over to Virgin Care Services, which follows on from the damning report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last month into the outsourcing of primary care services in England to Capita, has highlighted how the Tories’ shambolic Brexit poses a major threat to the future of the NHS in Scotland, the SNP has said.
SNP Health spokesperson at Westminster Dr Philippa Whitford MP has warned that the power grab over public procurement allows the Tories at Westminster to put Scotland’s NHS under the same threats as the health service south of the border, with the Tories able to open up Scotland’s public services to profiteering firms.
In addition – the increasing threat of a disastrous No Deal Brexit will leave the Tories more desperate than ever to secure a trade deal with Donald Trump’s administration, no matter the cost to our public services. Prime Minsiter Theresa May has continually failed to rule out opening up the NHS to private US firms post-Brexit.
Source: Virgin handed £2bn worth of NHS England contracts : Welfare Weekly
Nicola Sturgeon just shamed the UK government with some great news for disabled people | The Canary
The Scottish government has announced the extension of a scheme to support disabled people to live independently. It’s in stark contrast to the actions of the UK government. Actions which the UN has previously said amount to “grave” and “systematic” violations of disabled people’s human rights.
Forward thinking?
Nicola Sturgeon’s government has said it will be permanently extending the blue badge parking scheme in Scotland to cover the “carers and relatives” of people who “pose a risk to themselves or others in traffic”. This would cover people living with conditions such as dementia, autism, and Down’s syndrome. The move has come off the back of a pilot scheme launched in April 2016.
Currently in England [pdf], people generally only get a blue badge if they have difficulty walking more than 50m, or if they have other issues with physically getting around. But as Scotland’s Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said:
It’s so important that people with disabilities, including cognitive impairments, can live a life of equal opportunities.
He said of the pilot scheme and the working group involved with the blue badge reforms:
Source: Nicola Sturgeon just shamed the UK government with some great news for disabled people | The Canary
Shock as Universal Credit rules treat sick as ‘fit for all work-related activity’ – against GPs explicit orders – Black Triangle Campaign
Activists ‘horrified’ by universal credit rules forcing sick claimants into work activity
“Very dangerous” rules are forcing severely-ill people applying for the government’s new universal credit to look for jobs and take part in training, even though their GPs have said they are not fit for work, “horrified” disabled activists have warned.
The rules – which have never been announced or publicised by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – apply to new universal credit claimants who are waiting for an assessment of their “fitness for work”.
And they mean they could have their benefits sanctioned for up to three months if they fail to follow strict instructions from a job coach with no medical training.
They are forced to take part in work-related activity, such as a work-focused interviews and “work preparation”, which could mean training or employment programmes.
They could also face sanctions if they fail to show they have searched for a job for up to 35 hours a week, and have not made themselves available for paid work.
Potential sanctions will continue to hang over their heads until their fitness for work is eventually tested through the notorious work capability assessment (WCA), which could take months.
Dr Stephen Carty, medical adviser to the Scottish grassroots campaign group Black Triangle (BT), who
SNP’s promises to the people of Scotland are undelivered as they continue their single-minded pursuit of independence : Daily Record
Scottish politics has never been as divided as it is now and barely a day passes without more evidence that the parliament is failing, says Record View.
When the Scottish Parliament reconvened in 1999, it was meant to usher in a new type of politics.
The adversarial style of Westminster would be replaced by an atmosphere of consensus – where rivals worked together for the benefit of the people of Scotland.
It hasn’t quite worked out that way.
Scottish politics has never been as divided and angry as it is now. And barely a day passes without more evidence that the parliament is failing.
People want Holyrood to provide decent schools for their kids and reliable hospitals when they are sick.
Instead, they get relentless constitutional bickering while important stuff is neglected.
In the immediate aftermath of the independence referendum, it briefly looked like Scotland would get back to business.
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SNP’s Mary Black’s Arguments against Trident
This is another excellent short video I found on YouTube, this time of the SNP’s Mhairi Black arguing against Trident in parliament. She rebuts the claim that the SNP are against it for purely idealistic reasons. She instead argues that there’s no point to having Trident, as Britain has a policy of not being the first to use nuclear weapons. If Britain is not the first to use them, then it means that everyone’s dead anyway from the enemy’s strike against us. She states clearly that she isn’t worried about our weapons heading towards the enemy, but towards the missiles heading towards us. She also states that the three major threats to Britain, according to the security authorities, are: 1) international terrorism; 2) climate change, and 3) cybercrime. The video concludes with her asking what terrorist attacks our possession of nuclear weapons has deterred?
61chrissterry 