Dear Lord Smith, Good luck with your new job. It might be helpful to recall that back in 1988 when Bill Hughes was whispering in her ear even Mrs Thatcher conceded the principle of Scottish solutions to Scottish problems and that phrase even made it into The Scottish Enterprise White Paper though this it was unfortunately undercut by a less well-publicised UK Department of Employment White Paper (issued at the same time) which reserved many of the functions in the area of Employment Policy that were later also reserved under Head H - Employment in the Scotland Act 1998. A further broken promise to Noel Gallagher of Oasis at the Cool Britannia party in Downing Street for flexibility in respect of basic income for creative artists was also another missed opportunity to relax the nanny state - and tilt the balance towards localised labour market efficiency and what Pat Kane calls The Play Ethic which fosters creativity in all walks of life and business but which with sanctions & bedroom taxes etc is now becoming very difficult. That heavy handed welfare fascism may make Tory Conference delegates and UKIP purr with pleasure - but it is inappropriate and cruel for vibrant and creative cities like Dundee and Glasgow which is perhaps one reason why the Spirit of Independence gained majority support in both these cities and 45% amongst the more adventurous and entrepreneurial members of society who now feel let down. My first demand is an immediate review of benefit sanctions - with the benefit of the doubt being passed back to DWP in London to justify what are often clerical errors before they dock benefit. And an immediate end to the atmosphere of intimidation and harrassment evident not least during the Referendum period following the memo to staff issued by Permanent Secretary Devereux. Whatever happened to David Camerons Respect agenda? And I commend this example of what Dundee can do to inspire the rest of Britain during the recent referendum campaign: https://youtube/watch?v=hogoHazNfoQ Yours for Scotland, neil robertson
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 21:56:46 +0000
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