It was surprising to hear of the strong opposition from the business community to Politician of the Year John Swinney's plan to drop the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL). The Edinburgh rail link disappeared with little fuss a few years ago due to cash constraints so why is Glasgow's equivalent project more special?
The proposed plan from the business community to pay for the £175m Glasgow Airport Rail Link is to end the free school meals for all p1 to p3 kids policy. Matthew 21:16 says 'From the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have created praise'?", Iain MacMillan wants to amend this to 'From the mouths of infants you have created a rail link'. It may not be a mistake of biblical proportions but it would certainly be foolish.
Labour has been canny enough not to suggest dropping such a progressive, important policy as free school meals but the business pressure group has been happy to. PFI has also been suggested as a possible funding model, as if the mountain of debt that the Scottish Government is lumbered with for the next few decades isn't high enough already.
On this proposal, Labour has alarmingly been all too happy to jump onboard. Per Charlie Gordon MSP:
“A simpler method of funding would be to borrow against the value of Network Rail’s assets. It’s like using a credit card rather than a debit card.”
While 'Bankrupt Britain' wallows in a deficit caused by Governments and citizens alike borrowing more than they should have, Mr Gordon still wants to keep using his flexible friend to have shiny new toys today and leave the hassle of paying for stuff until tomorrow.
I am strongly behind the SNP chiefly due to two of their policies, the end of PFI and the provision of free, healthy school meals for as many children as is possible. For the sake of one mile of railtrack, both are coming under attack so to that end I do hope Labour's budget amendments are put under great scrutiny. Maybe they can magic up the £175m needed to pay for this in a sensible, responsible manner but on current evidence, I see little alternative to the austere draft budget that has already been laid down.
Sadly, I fear that when Andy Kerr hands John Swinney his budget proposal, the document will merely have 4 letters scrawled across it.
Carla in bronze
4 minutes ago
11 comments:
Another good blog. However I can't agree with your central points. I am not at all convinced that universal free school meals is the best way of targetting resources which you concede are scarce. I pay for my son's school meals and am happy to do so. I am also happy for any money this could (given that this is a policy not yet plememted) to be used on GARL. This investment will help to strengthen Glasow's economy, something that will ultimately bring greater prosperity to the region. If you are looking for an alternative saving then I would suggest either an alternative funding method for the Forth Road Bridge or a refurb of the existing bridge.
Thanks David and I of course fully appreciate your point. We don't have much money so why give out free lunches to families who can afford them. I fear however that that is a rather myopic view of the situation. We need to revolutionise how we eat in this country, particularly the youngsters. I paid for my meals back in the day and just scraped the veg into the bin, somehow surviving the afternoon after a meal of cake and irn bru. I then graduated to the chips and pizza and Greggs lunches at High School. We need to remove the stigma of having your lunch paid for you and take back control of what our kids are eating, and that's all kids, rich or poor. Clearly something is desperately wrong if Scotland is the sick man of Europe so catching the next generation when they're young and feeding them all the same, proper, healthy school meals day after day and getting them into the 5-a-day mindset isn't far off a silver bullet.
It'll pay for itself in the long run too unlike, I suspect, a PFI-funded GARL.
If the business community wants it, they can pay for it.
Next.
Jeff, I've tried to make this point many times, that free school meals are not simply about handing out dosh to parents (who are no less deserving than the bankers!), but are a way of guiding the eating habits of our young for their lifetime. Like you, I believe it's one of the true success stories of this government and am appalled at the short sightedness of the Labour apparatchiks who would attack it.
It may come down to the fact that the SNP have done something, not just good, but wonderful and are failing to explain why it is such a good initiative, leaving Labour and the Tories to talk about the cost ignoring the value.
Labour have suggested dropping free school meals and also the Border Rail Link to pay for GARL. Well, Steven Purcell has anyway. Whether that makes it into Labour's Budget amendments is something we will have to wait and see.
Dave - we are not talking about universal free school meals for every single pupil. We are talking about P1-P3 so if your children are any older you will go on paying. I think the SNP Govt perhaps needs to be a bit clearer about the purpose of it as too many people seem to think it is just a giveaway. It's not, it is an integral part of the drive to tackle childhood obesity and improve diet. Labour say they are committed to this as well but their commitment would extend only as far as giving children leaflets about eating their 5 a day. To be effective you actually have to give young children the experience of eating tasty and nutritious food which is something that many of them - particularly in cities like Glasgow - simply do not get at home. It's a well researched, evidence based policy supported by expert opinion and costs relatively little in the scheme of things.
About the Scottish budget the newsnight segment about Arbuttnot's plan for the Clyde valley councils to shared services.
In it he said that councils are planning for a 15% reduction in the SBG.
I thought it would be 10-12% tough times ahead.
Now what is always lacking for Labour is that they never put costings no putting GARL back into place.
So it will be interesting, free school meals is a very good idea and will benefit a lot of children.
Where is this figure of £175m coming from? There seem to be a number of numbers floating about for the cost of this. Whatever it is though, it's too expensive during these current times.
I agree with the anonymous poster; if BA want it, BA can pay for it.
Finally, on a point about borrowing against Network Rail's assets - surely that's not within the Scottish Parliament's legal competencies??
If Labour think that this project is so important, then they will suggest an alternative budget that will include GARL. Of course, if they were in power at Westminster, I'm sure such a feeble (relatively talking) amount of cash could be found to build this, to 'save' Glasgow from the SNP - but they won't. Because it's just cheap trash talk.
The Heathrow Rail-link was built by private finance, I cannot see why if the business community want this rail link that they put up the finance - if it makes a profit they can keep that to pay for the capital introduced. That way we do not increase the central national debt.
Hamish, As I recall, the independent constulants assessing the GARL project quantified the projected passenger traffic to and from Glasgow airport as between 3 -18 passengers per train journey - hardly the numbers that would appeal to private investors looking for a return on their capital.
yup. If there is such an urgent demand, let a private company finance the thing. They can effectively toll it like the airport rail links in London or Paris, and theres every incentive for a private operation to get it done to quote.
There is no need for the taxpayers to fund everything. Let some shareholders pay for it if they want it.
Good blog there. You have reminded me of another of the SNP's failings - to flag up the damage that New Labour's PPP programme to renovate/build new schools has done to coulcil finances up and down Scotland. Refrewshire Council for example is shedding £8million a year in PPP re-payments. Yet New Labour are making hay while the SNP make cuts (and making a hash of defending themselves) to make these payments.
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