THREAT TO SCOTTISH RECOVERY FROM GRAY'S “DO NOTHING BUT CUT” APPROACH

For Immediate Release: 12th September 2010


Attn: NEWSDESKS
POLITICAL / ECONOMY CORRESPONDENTS


LABOUR HYPOCRITES HAVE “NO --IDEAS AND NO POLICIES”


Commenting on Labour's remarks about research they themselves commissioned
on unemployment, SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson said Scottish economic recovery
faced the threat of Iain Gray's 'do nothing but cut' approach which would
just let Scottish resources and taxes flow to the Tory Treasury in London.


Commenting Mr Gibson said:


"This is an incredible blunder by Labour. It covers their final year in
office and only draws attention to the fact they were the authors of the
current economic problems - including unemployment - that we face.


"Just what was Jim Murphy doing in this period?"


"No one in Scotland can trust a word Labour says. Their hollow claims of
concern are exposed by the fact that Iain Gray will do nothing to help
Scottish recovery and create jobs.


"He and his Holyrood team have no ideas and no policies when it comes to
energising the Scottish economy – it is only the SNP which offers a
positive solution with financial responsibility and indepdence.


"In fact Iain Gray and Jim Murphy are both on record supporting the right
of the Tories in London to govern Scotland. A right which means millions
in revenue from Scottish taxes will flow to the Tory-run Treasury in
London rather than kept and spent in Scotland.


"The real threat facing Scotland next year is a Labour party with no
answers to grow Scotland's economy, and who support cuts "deeper and
tougher" than those of Margaret Thatcher."


ENDS


Notes


1. Iain Gray and Jim Murphy supporting the right of the Tories in London
to govern Scotland:


"Mr Gray ... insisted that he would accept the right of the Conservatives
to govern [Scotland] if they can form a government."


Times, 8 May 2010


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7120048.ece


"Jim Murphy ... conceded that if David Cameron's Tories could form a
government, they would have a mandate to rule in Scotland - despite only
having one MP from north of the border."


BBC, Friday, 7 May 2010


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/scotland/8668114.stm


2. Labour's approach to cuts and spending was articulated in March:


Asked by the BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson to accept the Treasury's
own figures suggest deeper, tougher cuts than those implemented by the
Thatcher government in the 1980s, Mr Darling replied:


"They will be deeper and tougher - where we make the precise comparison I
think is secondary to fact is an acknowledgement that these reductions
will be tough".


BBC News, Thursday, 25th March 2010


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8587877.stm