Sweat Shop of Europe – The latest round of pay award negotiations has started between the trade unions and COSLA and yet again local authority staff have been offered a derisory offer. The offer made by COSLA is
· An underpinning minimum rate of £9.98· 2% increase on all spinal column points
As Unite point out this is effectively a 6% pay cut for next year. I personally work for a local authority and we have seen our wages decrease year on year since 2010 in relation to inflation and the cost of living while like everyone we have seen our bills rise year on year and this year we are all going to feel the pain of the state of the UK. No one who works for a local authority is asking the earth, all we are asking for is a chance to just stand still for one year, to not get poorer and poorer year on year working in an environment where the demands increase year on year from our communities and ever increasing demands from our managers. The UK has always been a low pay economy but the UK is fast becoming the sweat shop of Europe, if it already isn’t.
Should We Be Worried – Cases of Covid-19 and Covid-19 deaths are rising again in Scotland with more people in hospital.
One in 19 people had Covid-19 in Scotland in the week ending February 26, according to the Office for National Statistics, compared to around one in 30 in England and Wales.
Scotland’s estimate has been rising steadily since mid-January, overtaking first Wales and then England. Around one in 17 people had Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, although the figures are falling.
The spike is thought to be a result of the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, or the “stealth” variant, which is more transmissible than the original BA.1 – although it does not seem to cause more severe illness.(ONS)
This is from the far less dangerous variant of the illness but should this re-focus the mind for all of us. As I have blogged before I am so sick of the whole situation, Scotland has handled the pandemic as badly as some of the worst effected countries around the world no matter what the media try to portray when it comes to Nicola Sturgeon, when I think about it now I actually resent the restrictions like only being able to go out once a day during lock down, we should never have accepted that in that way and while I am still wearing a face covering, socially distancing etc I am so tired of all of this now I really am but do we need to extend the restrictions?
Deluded Beyond Belief – So Labour Tory Leader Keir Starmer came north for his yearly visit to preach to the few remaining faithful of the Labour Party in Scotland and took the visit to new levels of stupidity and delusion even by Labour standards of recent years. First of all he said that his party needs “more MPs like Ian Murray to achieve a majority at Westminster. LOL yeah he really said that, claimed that is “wrong” to say that Scotland can’t choose the government it gets. This is despite the fact Scotland has not voted for a Conservative government since 1955, but has had to live under Tory rule for the majority of the years afterwards. (Laura Webster)
Can I get some of what Starmer is smoking please, Labour will not win in Scotland or in the rest of the UK as long as they are a slightly lighter version of the Tories, why vote Labour Tory when you can have the real thing. The Labour Party should do us all a favour and just disband, but failing that, if they really want to improve their chances in Scotland then they need to ditch their Tory policies and embrace independence. Comic relief came from Anus Sarwar who thinks he will be First Minister in 2026, yeah really.
Anyone Surprised – So the Tories are still to really get moving on sanctions against Russian money men who provide funds to the Tory Party while the general feeling appears to be that the USA might be equally complicit in not actually doing all that much really when it comes to their Russian friends. Money talks not lives.
Through a Scottish Prism is the only political show worth watching now if you are an independence supporter given the rest are all pretty much unionist. If you haven’t watched it well 12 noon every Sunday is your chance, excellent debate and insight so please support new media.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
Interesting read as usual. Maybe Sarwar and Starmer are deluded or perhaps SLAB has effectively given up on the Scottish working class and are reduced to targeting middle class unionist ‘soft Tories’ disillusioned with Johnson, hence his comment praising the right winger Murray. It appears that Starmer’s priority is winning back the Brexit/red wall voters and so he is trying counter the usual Tory line about a minority Labour government being held to ransom by the SNP by appearing to be even more hardline unionist than the Tories. Whatever the strategy, it’s clear that Scotland’s future doesn’t figure in Labour’s priorities.
Not that we can hope for much better with the devolutionist SNP. The National’s interview today with Sturgeon’s wee pal Karen Adam on how she is trying to motivate more women to stand for the SNP was profoundly depressing but symptomatic of what the party has become. Mentions of trans rights, rainbow lanyards and flags but not a single mention of independence.
Glen
I totally agree, Labour have given up on Scotland now and are trying to appeal to Tories and their former right wing it would northern voter and the SNP under Sturgeon are a rainbow British Party now. Hopefully Alba will start to see in inroad now as they are our last hope to be honest. Maybe the council elections will be the final one where Alba take a bit of a kicking but get themselves more noticed by the voters for where they stand and can build from there going forward because the SNP are no longer the answer. Sturgeon has got what she wanted, a Britnat party of rainbow meetoo devolutionists which has all but killed the dream but we live and learn and move forward. Just like 1707 we have been betrayed by the people we looked to lead but we learn.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
You might be interested in this very short piece (further links within). I perceive the Putin initiated events in Ukraine and the Tory UK Government Brexit are ideologically linked…
‘Tory Militarisation of UK Is Inevitable’ (2022) https://wp.me/p94Aj4-33w by #GaslightingGilligan
Twitter: @GasGilligan (© 2017) *free download*.
GG
I think the Tories are right in it with their dirty money and are bricking it that it all comes out and that is why they are fighting tooth and nail to stop any investigation into their funding. The UK is as corrupt as they come and people want to remain a part of this shit hole and the SNP have morphed into a BritNat Party. I’ll check out the link thanks.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce