MSP Joins Unions in Bank Closure Protest

  Trade Union Unite have accused the Royal Bank of Scotland of a serious breach in banking protocols for branch closures and are urging bank executives to stop the closure programme and think again. A call that is supported by Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Alex Rowley who says the bank has let down communities […]

Poor Rail Services Raised in Parliament

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJB2zjzfnEU[/embedyt]   Fife MSP Alex Rowley has questioned the Scottish Government on what they are doing to address the poor rail services within Fife on the Fife circle route highlighting the practice of trains skipping stations to make up time and the lack of adequate carriages in peak times as unacceptable. Speaking in Parliament […]

New Housing Developments Stalled

I continue to campaign for social rented housing to be built to tackle the housing crisis in Scotland. Alongside this we need to see the levels of new build for all sectors, including home ownership, rise to pre-recession levels, which sadly is not happening. The Scottish Government have brought forward a new planning bill to […]

Universal Credit in Fife

  The UK Government has gone ahead and rolled out Universal Credit in Fife despite all the evidence that it is causing widespread misery for tens of thousands of people across the country. Both the Scottish Government and Fife Council are taking action to mitigate the worst elements of this flawed legislation and changes but […]

Student Support System Broken

  Many organisations and groups have used the lead up to this year’s Scottish Budget being published to highlight the specific issues they would like to see addressed. NUS Scotland have set out their keys issues through a campaign they call ‘Budget for Better’ and they say the current student support system is broken. You […]

Education is Key for Addressing Inequality

  This week we saw a report published by the Social Mobility Commission “State of the Nation 2017: “Social Mobility in Great Britain”. The Commission say Britain is a deeply divided nation. Those divisions take many forms. Class, income, gender, race. In recent years, each has been the subject of much scrutiny. But one form […]

FMQs 26th October – Scotland’s Health Service

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px1UAOv6ldg[/embedyt]   This week at FMQs I questioned the First Minister on the release of a new Audit Scotland report on the state of Scotland’s health service. This report raises massive concerns for the state of our NHS. It shows the failings in budgets and the financial management of health and social care, the […]

An End to Fracking in Scotland

  I was pleased to join with campaigners from Scotland Against Fracking, the Broad Alliance, WWF Scotland and Friends of the Earth Scotland outside the Scottish Parliament today calling for support from the Parliament to end fracking in Scotland. I supported the Government motion which due to a Labour amendment effectively bans fracking from taking […]