SNP excuses and spin can't hide the managed decline of our public services
by Anas Sarwar, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/authors/anas-sarwar/ · Daily RecordGet the latest Daily Record breaking news on WhatsApp
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After 17 long years of SNP Government, every single institution in Scotland has been left weaker.
We have an NHS in crisis with almost 1 in 6 Scots on a waiting list, education declining with schools tumbling down the international league tables, and a housing emergency forcing over 10,000 children into temporary accommodation.
Wherever you look, the consequences of SNP incompetence are plain to see.
The damage this chaotic government has done to our justice system has been thrown into sharp focus recently as the government ploughed ahead with another round of early prisoner releases.
Hundreds of prisoners will be released from Scotland’s prisons before finishing less than half of their sentences because prisons are at breaking point.
Elsewhere in the UK, Labour is clearing up the mess left behind by the Tories – but here the SNP is just scrambling to clear up its own mess.
Make no mistake – the crisis we are seeing right now has been years in the making. Our Victorian-era prison estate is crumbling, but new prisons have been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
Levels of remand have soared and legal aid has faced deep cuts. Our courts are dealing with a staffing crisis and the huge courts backlog is leaving victims in limbo for years waiting for justice.
The chief inspector of prisons, Cosla, Community Justice Scotland, Victim Support Scotland and the Scottish Prison Service have all been sounding the alarm – but the SNP hasn’t been listening.
The SNP has ignored warning after warning, year after year.
This is what we’ve all come to expect from the SNP. This government lets problems spiral until they are at crisis point – and then we all pay the price for their failure.
Last week the Auditor General issued a damning judgement on the SNP’s record, stating said that “the Scottish Government is not providing effective leadership on reform” and it is “reacting to events rather than making fundamental changes”.
He also slated the SNP’s lack of transparency, accusing the government of keeping the public in the dark about the scale of the crisis in our public services.
Scotland deserve so much better than the incompetence and secrecy of this SNP government.
But as public services across the board buckle under the pressure of SNP failure, John Swinney continues to insist there is no need for a change in direction.
This is a government totally out of ideas and hopelessly out of touch. Whether it’s our justice system, our NHS or our schools, the SNP’s woeful record speaks for itself.
We need more than the SNP’s excuses, spin, incompetence, waste, and managed decline. It’s time for real reform and a new direction for Scotland – and Scottish Labour is ready to deliver that.
Winter Fuel Payment will be restored by Labour
Last week I made a pledge to pensioners in Scotland – if Scottish Labour wins the 2026 election, we will reinstate the Winter Fuel Payment.
I want us to use the powers of devolution to make the right choices for Scotland, instead of standing by and making excuses like the SNP.
I’ve long said that the eligibility criteria in place this year is too narrow, but we can use the powers of devolution to deliver a fairer system.
Winter Fuel Payments were supposed to be a devolved benefit this year, but the SNP chose to hand the powers back to the DWP.
The Scottish Government also received £41 million of funding to provide support for the most vulnerable this winter, but that money has been swallowed up by the SNP’s fiscal blackhole.
The SNP’s rhetoric will ring hollow as long as it refuses to use the levers it has to help people.
The record levels of funding Labour delivered for Scotland in the budget means the SNP is out of excuses – it has the money and the powers.
Labour is cleaning up the Tories’ mess across the UK and we need a new direction in Scotland too. In 2026 we can deliver that with a Scottish Labour government.
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