Working families are increasingly having to turn to charity to keep their heads above water. We already know that foodbanks are now being used by people with jobs as their wages can’t cover the basics of rent, energy bills and food.
Today we report how many working families are now having to use school uniform charities to get their kids ready for the new school term. This situation tells us a lot about the state of the Scottish economy and the cost-of-living crisis.
But it also reveals the failure of successive Tory, Labour and SNP governments to make work pay. For generations, having a job was enough to lift people out of poverty and cover the basics of life – with small luxuries like holidays also a possibility.
Now having a full-time job is no guarantee that you can even pay your rent. There’s a simple reason for this – it’s not rocket science. Wages are too low.
For years trade unions have been weakened and big businesses have hammered down wages. No government has properly got to grips with this problem so we’re now in a situation where millions are in poverty despite working their socks off.
Andy Burnham and John Swinney are both politicians on the centre-left of politics. They both sincerely want to see poverty reduced for working families.
The best way they can do that would be to make sure that hard graft pays. That means increasing the minimum wage in line with inflation every year.
And giving workers the freedom to demand higher wages from their employers through stronger unions. Better wages help families prosper.
And make our economy stronger.
The NHS used to be the envy of the entire world. But our health service has been taken for granted by successive governments for too long.
Spending may have risen each year, but somehow it’s still not been enough to patch up the growing number of NHS buildings that are falling apart. More than a third of the NHS estate is in poor repair, an increase from 19 per cent in 2020. It’s an issue many see on a regular basis.
Too many hospitals and clinics are based in buildings that were opened in the 1970s and 80s. Repairs have often been piecemeal in the decades since.
There is huge pressure on public spending, as those waiting for a replacement Monklands hospital are painfully aware of. But the longer repairs go ignored, the worse this mess becomes.
Patients deserve treatment in modern, clean environments. Not in corridors with buckets collecting rain water.
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