Published: Wednesday, 7th July, 2010 12:30pm

SNP vs Labour

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Everybody knows and expects politicians to take some facts and spin them for the best effect, or as the song says, accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, but Des McNulty MSP has taken this art form to new horizons in his latest column in the Clydebank Post.

His Labour Government — before losing to the Tories at Westminster — cut the budget to the Scottish Government by £500m.

Some analysts state the effect of this was more like a cut of £800m.

It would be endearing in a young child, but not in a grown man, to believe that this reduction would have absolutely no effect on public spending.

I will not bore you going over all that rash claims that Des made in his Clydebank Post column, I will simply use a couple as an example.

Des claimed: Labour put finance in place for two new high schools and two new primary schools - wrong Labour may have promised money but they never actually gave West Dunbartonshire so much as one penny towards these schools.

Des also complains about the move to the 'Curriculum for Excellence' which is something teachers have been calling for — but it is taking the shackles off teachers and allowing them to teach.

It is taking teachers back to a time where there was less political interference in how they actually teach our children, leaving them no longer teaching from a ridged curriculum, with room for their professional input.

He complains that it is going ahead in August, the start of the school year, only six working weeks away.

Many teachers at present use their long Summer break to prepare their lessons for the following term so what is the difference here?

Des complains that the Scottish Government under-finances local government.

The fact is that local government received a larger share of the Scottish Government total block grant this year that ever before.

This year the Labour Government in Westminster cut the block grant to the Scottish Government by £500m.

In other words local government received a larger slice of a smaller cake, so the under-financing, Des, is down to the people who controlled the size of the cake, his former Labour Government in London.

Gil Paterson, SNP MSP