SNP tackling poverty

Sirs,

Cllr MacCormack's recent letters on child poverty are designed to give the impression that the SNP has failed to tackle this problem in Scotland.

Let me simply quote the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's report jrf.org.uk child-poverty-scotland of 2014: "Child poverty in Scotland has fallen by around twice the level in England in the last ten years. This study looks at what we can learn from this and at the challenges ahead.

Key points include:

Much of the fall in child poverty in Scotland and England is due to a decrease in poverty among lone-parent families.
Much of Scotland’s additional fall in child poverty is due to a drop in poverty among working-couple parents. This is partly because more working couples have moved to ‘full’ working, where both are in work and at least one is working full-time. This has not happened in England."

Letter: Report shows SNP’s “splendid record” in tackling poverty

6 May 2015

It couldn't be clearer than that. The SNP has a splendid record in using the small and declining amount of pocket money it receives from Westminster in tackling child poverty. That's what the experts say, although Cllr MacCormack is, of course, entitled to disagree with them.

Mr Murray of the Shetlands is, for the umpteenth time like a cracked gramophone record, complaining that our MP Angus Brendan MacNeil, doesn't attend Comhairle meetings.

The reason is simple. He is not a member of the Comhairle and has no more right to attend meetings than me or Mr Murray. He is paid to represent these islands at Westminster and, with one of the highest attendance records in Parliament, even Mr MacNeil cannot be in two places at once.

If Mr Murray is losing sleep over attendance records at the Comhairle, he might speak to a Labour councillor who attends barely half the meetings yet still claims over £20,000 a year of taxpayers money.

Dr David Wilson

Press Officer

SNP Lewis branch