Wednesday 13 December 2017

SCOTTISH BUDGET 2018/2019

It's Budget setting day tomorrow for the Scottish Government and earlier this week UNISON Angus took the opportunity to write to our constituency and list MSPs. We told them that we'd support any politician who was prepared to take a real stand against austerity and we called for investment in our services and communities. We believe that a real anti-austerity approach to the 2018/19 budget should be the main priority and focus for the Government and Councils and indeed, many of our MSPs (and Councillors) were elected on anti-austerity manifestos.
We've called on them to work towards a budget that does more than just mitigate against the worst excesses of the cuts that have been inflicted over the past seven years. National and local services need investment to enable them to survive and provide adequately for all in our communities. We welcomed the manifesto pledges made by the Scottish government but we also see that as a result of those pledges there is very little left in the pot for local government. The impact of that is continuing cuts to budgets which really affects a rural community such as Angus.
Scotland has the power to break from the austerity model that is set to be with us for the next decade. MSPs can enable that change by helping to produce a budget that has investment at its heart and will reverse the cuts and end austerity.
Never before has our branch had to write to MSPs making this plea; this highlights the desperate times we find ourselves in and our significant concerns about the future delivery of vital services to the people of Angus.
Finally, we hoped that we would hear back from them in the near future. To date, only one has........

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