'No let up from relentless cuts'

Published 10 Aug 2010 10:00

The Summer recess, when there is no parliamentary business at Westminster, means I get to spend more time in the constituency.

I have had the chance to attend my first meetings at Clydebank Re-built and Strathleven Regeneration.

I have been catching up with organisations like the Lennox Partnership, the National Park Authority and the Tullochan Trust.

Later in the recess I will be visiting local employers, including Chivas Brothers and Clydesdale Bank.

In the past few days I have been out meeting residents in Mountblow and Bonhill, as well as the Faifley Gala Day and St Augustine’s Summer fete.

Unfortunately, the Summer has not seen any let up in the Tories’ relentless cuts.

This week we have seen that the truth will always come out.

After months of the coalition insisting that their cuts agenda is “necessary” and purely a financial decision, the mask is starting to slip.

David Cameron admitted that their public spending cuts will not be reversed, regardless of the state of public finances.

This is deeply worrying.

I believe the Government’s cuts will harm the economy.

But even if they make the right decisions, and we do see more money coming into the public purse, it is now clear that they have no intention of putting the money they have cut back into public services.

It is all too evident in their priorities.

I am sick of listening to them run down the public sector and hard working public sector workers.

They are demonstrating this through their aggressive attack on public sector pensions.

Their idea of the ‘Big Society’ frankly equates to ‘Big Cuts’.

Of course, volunteering is a good thing.

Of course, being involved in your community and lending a hand is to be encouraged.

The voluntary and charitable sector does a fantastic job across Scotland and if David Cameron wants to come to West Dunbartonshire I will show him some great examples.

But we cannot run schools, police our streets, care for the sick and support the elderly on a voluntary basis.

It is in any case hypocrisy to suggest that the voluntary sector should play a bigger role, when its funding is also under threat.

Devolution means we do not have to follow the Tories’ crazy ideology on public services.

The Scottish Parliament can make different choices about how things are run.

But we will not escape the budget cuts, and as anyone struggling to balance the books knows, you only have real choice about how you do things when you have the money to do it.

The Tories have not changed.

Their cuts are based on their beliefs that society should not care for and support others.

The cuts are ideological, not financial and they are shameful.

Tweet

This article appeared in Clydebank Post 10 Aug 10

Follow @clydebankpost

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Opinion archives.