Cllr John Bell North Ayrshire

Last November the council discussed the scottish governments data on deprivation indicators. These showed that the situation in North Ayrshire had worsened relative to the rest of Scotland. At the meeting I called for the council to lobby both national and scottish governments for help in dealing with the issues, and this was agreed.

At yesterdays full council meeting a formal document was agreed as the basis for taking forward the campaign, and one section underlines the issues which successive administrations have not resolved.

The scale, depth and multigenerational nature of our poverty and deprivation indicate that, despite this prioritisation of effort and resources, the area requires significant external assistance to halt and reverse its decline.

http://www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/ChiefExec/CommRA07.nsf/e21b2fee5367dbad80256e040053c631/c36fea95190ff74d8025773b00399a95?OpenDocument

Some of you will recall my 15 minutes of fame, when I identified some of the investments I know are necessary to improve the basic infrastructure in North Ayrshire. Unfortunately this message was lost in others attempts to make fun of a spelling error. Anyone who claims to have an interest in the well being of the people of North Ayrshire must now concentrate on the task of making the case with government, to take the situation seriously and take steps to deal with the continuing health, poverty and employment issues . 

As widely predicted the Tories anti-public sector ideology has surfaced in the budget announced by George Osborne. The Tories are using the world wide recession and a balance of payments deficit as cover for pursuing their fundamental right-wing ideology. What is wrong with the economy in the UK is a lack of private sector growth, the public sector is not too big, the private sector is not big enough.

Private sector greed, was at the root of the recession.

There are other alternatives, Labour had proposed raising National Insurance for employees and employers, the Tories claim this is bad for business and will not raise NI for employers. NI is the tax which funds the NHS and pensions why should businesses not pay for their employees health and pension, I bet those bankers and businesses which publically opposed this provide private health care and pensions to their staff.

The other obvious alternative to cutting services is to raise taxation, an increase to the basic rate tax should not be ruled out if we really are to share the pain.

In North Ayrshire much is made of the imbalance in the economy, with the largest employers being the local authority and Health Board. Lets be clear, they are the biggest employers because of the failure of private enterprise and the repeated failure of regeneration attempts to attract real long term jobs into the area following the collapse of traditional industries. Glengarnock steel works, ICI, and the Linwood car plant were all big employers of staff from this area whose loss was never adequately replaced. 

North Ayrshire is an area of deprivation in needs a strong public sector to ensure services are in place to try and mitigate these problems. It also needs a real regeneration commitment from central government. Long term health improvements, training and educational improvements will not come from the private sector

Lib-Dem members must be wondering how they can face the electorate after campaigning against vat rises and then immediately changing policy on election.

So there we go, despite the majority of the UK voting for centre left parties we now have a conservative prime minister. I know this may sound like sour grapes, but the Tories did not win the election but are now in power.

As airports throughout the UK closedown following the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, another dark cloud is on the horizon. That caused by the threat of a Conservative government. They have campaigned against every improvement to the lives of the less well off in Britain, against a minimum wage, against working tax credits, child tax credits, and against increased parental rights. What are they in favour of, apart from increasing inheritance tax threshholds.

Before the last round of troubles centering on Iceland they were against banking regulation, mind you so was their tartan colleague Salmond. Now they say they are into communities and co-operatives. If you think that there is a litter problem they will sell you a brush, if you complain about potholes they will give you a website to log it.

This whole dark cloud thing is like part of a Harry Potter novel, lets hope Draco Malfoy does not make Prime Minister.

The Tories, their Tartan colleagues and some business leaders have come out against the proposed increases in National Insurance. These increases are part of the Chancellors measures to deal with the deficit, caused by the global recession. The Labour Party plan to bring in these increases next financial year, it will allow them to limit the spending reduction in public services. The Tories claim they don't need to implement this increase as they can make bigger cuts to public services sooner. Other parties reckon, there would need to be an increase in VAT to afford this.

People in employment, and businesses pay National Insurance, people without jobs do not. Everyone pays VAT, unemployed, pensioners and children all pay.

Seemingly a group of Britains business leaders call this a Tax on jobs and that this is the only thing that is preventing them coming out of recovery, even though its not yet in force.

Business leaders think its better that the unemployed, the sick and the elderly pay for the greed of the business community rather than them.

Just to lighten the mood

Cameron Exposed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FnmnuDiVno