Good afternoon from The Courier’s politics team, here are your top 5 politics stories making headlines today.
1. School strikes enters second week
John Swinney wants unions to stop targeting schools in his Perthshire constituency in a row over council staff pay.
It’s now week two of the stand-off, which the first minister says unfairly targets families locally just because he leads the Scottish Government.
In a letter to the union’s Perth and Kinross branch secretary, Stuart Hope, Mr Swinney wrote today: “I very much hope that Unison will continue meaningful dialogue with local government and join with GMB and Unite colleagues by accepting the offer and ending industrial action.”
Non-teaching staff who are members of Unison rejected the latest pay deal, which would have seen an increase of 67p per hour or 3.6%, whichever was higher, with the deal later being imposed on staff.
2. Can Budget really ‘end austerity’?
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget will “end the era of austerity” and provide more cash for “vital” public services, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar claims.
Speaking before Wednesday’s speech, he accepted SNP ministers at Holyrood have the “right to argue for more money” – but said they “also have to get better at how they spend money”.
Labour are also under more pressure today to end cuts to winter fuel payment eligibility and do more to end child poverty.
3. Labour MP suspended for ‘punch’
Video footage that appears to show Labour MP Mike Amesbury punching a man to the ground is “shocking”, Sir Keir Starmer said as he defended his party’s decision to suspend him.
The prime minister said the party had “moved very swiftly” to respond after the footage emerged.
Mr Amesbury was suspended by the party and lost the Labour whip on Sunday after a clip was published by MailOnline in which the Runcorn and Helsby MP is apparently seen continuing to hit the man lying on the ground as people nearby shout “Stop it”.
4. Could pylon plans speed up?
The planning process for new clean energy infrastructure in Scotland is to be modified under UK and Scottish government proposals to reform legislation that can delay new projects being built.
Working with the Scottish Government, the UK Government has launched a consultation on proposed changes that will make the system for considering large energy projects in Scotland more efficient.
This is likely to be big news for people in areas such as Angus, where some residents are fighting plans for pylons they say will scythe through the countryside.
5. Russell Findlay attacks ‘political class’
New Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said Scotland had been governed by “different types of socialism” in the quarter-of-a-century since devolution, as he hit out at a “political class at Holyrood who just don’t get it”.
“Going forward, my party will not only make the case for tax cuts, but for a smaller state that better serves the public,” he claimed during his first set-piece speech as leader in Edinburgh today.
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