European Elections
With a short time to go before the European Elections I will be campaigning with David Martin MEP and Catherine Stihler MEP to try to encourage a good turn out of voters. It is well documented that there is an ever growing disconnect between people and European politics with most of the attention fixed on the two extremes of the argument over our membership of the European Union.
On one side there are those who argue that the solution is to withdraw from Europe ; on the other those who want a more politically integrated Federal Europe .So I welcome the report Close the Gap just published by the Electoral Reform Society looking at what we need here and now to make our membership of the European Community work better in democratic terms. They make twelve practical recommendations designed to make European politics more accountable and representative and to give the people of Britain more of a say about what happens at the European level. These include giving national parliaments more of a role in scrutinising and forming EU legislation which I think would be helpful.
Of course if there is a vote for separation for Scotland from the rest of the UK in September our membership of the EU would be in doubt and if we were given the go ahead to join we would have no choice but to commit to join the Euro whereas as part of the UK we can keep the pound in the national interest.
Better together
I am pleased to see my fellow Labour MP, Frank Roy has joined the Better Together HQ team. His role in the campaign is to provide political co-ordination for the grassroots campaign. I was also pleased to see my former colleague John Reid enter the debate last week in a Scottish Sunday newspaper. The former Home Secretary raised a number of issues that are going to be central to the debate over the next few months. He rightly rejected the nationalist pretence that somehow the vote in September is a choice between being Scottish and being British. It isn’t. We can be both. The choice that is on offer in five months time is a choice between two very different futures for Scotland. Do we vote to have the Best of Both Worlds – with a strengthened Scottish Parliament backed up by the strength, security and stability of the UK? Or do we take a leap into the unknown with independence? The first of a series of meetings I have organised on big Referendum issues was on the currency and a packed Ayr Town Hall heard Ian Murray MP deal with the topic of the Pound in your Pocket. On Thursday 8 May at 7.30pm in Ayr Town Hall, Gregg McClymont MP, the Shadow Pensions Minister, will speak on Independence and Pensions. If you would like to come along register by emailing [email protected]
Benefit withdrawal scandal
More and more people are coming to me on a daily basis who have had their benefit withdrawn for the flimsiest of reasons. Everyone agrees that there have to be fall-back sanctions in cases where there is genuine non-cooperation on the obligation to try to find work, but they should be proportionate and reasonable and not exercised punitively or with a view to reaching ‘targets’ for removing people from the unemployment lists.
The rules were tightened for Job Seeker Allowance recipients in October 2012 and for Employment Support Allowance recipients in December 2012. Since then the figures for those sanctioned have soared. Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, noted in October 2013 that there had been a rise of 64% in the number of problems with sanctions compared with the same period the previous year. She added that “Too often the sanctions regime is excessively harsh and badly implemented… with many people having no idea why their support is withdrawn whilst others have been punished for attending a job interview rather than visiting a Jobcentre”.
With a short time to go before the European Elections I will be campaigning with David Martin MEP and Catherine Stihler MEP to try to encourage a good turn out of voters. It is well documented that there is an ever growing disconnect between people and European politics with most of the attention fixed on the two extremes of the argument over our membership of the European Union.
On one side there are those who argue that the solution is to withdraw from Europe ; on the other those who want a more politically integrated Federal Europe .So I welcome the report Close the Gap just published by the Electoral Reform Society looking at what we need here and now to make our membership of the European Community work better in democratic terms. They make twelve practical recommendations designed to make European politics more accountable and representative and to give the people of Britain more of a say about what happens at the European level. These include giving national parliaments more of a role in scrutinising and forming EU legislation which I think would be helpful.
Of course if there is a vote for separation for Scotland from the rest of the UK in September our membership of the EU would be in doubt and if we were given the go ahead to join we would have no choice but to commit to join the Euro whereas as part of the UK we can keep the pound in the national interest.
Better together
I am pleased to see my fellow Labour MP, Frank Roy has joined the Better Together HQ team. His role in the campaign is to provide political co-ordination for the grassroots campaign. I was also pleased to see my former colleague John Reid enter the debate last week in a Scottish Sunday newspaper. The former Home Secretary raised a number of issues that are going to be central to the debate over the next few months. He rightly rejected the nationalist pretence that somehow the vote in September is a choice between being Scottish and being British. It isn’t. We can be both. The choice that is on offer in five months time is a choice between two very different futures for Scotland. Do we vote to have the Best of Both Worlds – with a strengthened Scottish Parliament backed up by the strength, security and stability of the UK? Or do we take a leap into the unknown with independence? The first of a series of meetings I have organised on big Referendum issues was on the currency and a packed Ayr Town Hall heard Ian Murray MP deal with the topic of the Pound in your Pocket. On Thursday 8 May at 7.30pm in Ayr Town Hall, Gregg McClymont MP, the Shadow Pensions Minister, will speak on Independence and Pensions. If you would like to come along register by emailing [email protected]
Benefit withdrawal scandal
More and more people are coming to me on a daily basis who have had their benefit withdrawn for the flimsiest of reasons. Everyone agrees that there have to be fall-back sanctions in cases where there is genuine non-cooperation on the obligation to try to find work, but they should be proportionate and reasonable and not exercised punitively or with a view to reaching ‘targets’ for removing people from the unemployment lists.
The rules were tightened for Job Seeker Allowance recipients in October 2012 and for Employment Support Allowance recipients in December 2012. Since then the figures for those sanctioned have soared. Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, noted in October 2013 that there had been a rise of 64% in the number of problems with sanctions compared with the same period the previous year. She added that “Too often the sanctions regime is excessively harsh and badly implemented… with many people having no idea why their support is withdrawn whilst others have been punished for attending a job interview rather than visiting a Jobcentre”.