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Aitken attacks 'secret cuts'

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Published Date: 04 June 2008
LABOUR group leader Ewan Aitken today hit out at "secret council cuts" after two adult education classes closed their doors.
Leith Learners, an adult literacy class held at Leith Academy, has been closed and an English for speakers of other languages class also recently wound up.

It is understood that the number of people attending the classes was very small. But Councillor Aitken said: "Vulnerable people in the front line are suffering."

A council spokeswoman said: "Where classes are discontinued due to low numbers, those remaining on the course are supported to find another suitable class."





The full article contains 100 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 04 June 2008 11:49 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

,

04/06/2008 12:19:54
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
2

alex paterson,

embra 04/06/2008 12:25:20
Ewan Aitken a man i use to admire but over the last few years he has went down hill.
3

Arrow,

edinburgh 04/06/2008 12:59:19
no #2 he has gone downhill!! those literacy classes should be re-instated.
4

,

04/06/2008 13:32:07
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
5

Rational cynic,

Edinburgh 04/06/2008 17:17:27
From another Scotsman article that, strangely, does not allow comments:

"LABOUR'S Andy Kerr will not be punished by Holyrood for breaching rules on the registration of gifts, MSPs agreed yesterday.

The former health minister received hospitality to see Manchester United take on Chelsea in the Community Shield football match in London last year."

Surely if he broke the rules he should suffer an appropriate penalty!? Will no MSP speak up to enforce the rules of Parliament?
6

,

04/06/2008 17:28:56
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
7

Rasco,

04/06/2008 21:14:16
Just wait and see what happens if Alex Salmond takes hospitality or donation and does not declair them,he will lambasted by Kerr,Wendy and all the anti press and media.
8

Duncan in Edinburgh,

04/06/2008 21:17:24
#1 claims "the Council's own financial chiefs said there was less than £250,000 left in the kitty when Liebour handed the keys to the city chambers over"

No, they didn't because it wasn't true.

Why do people persist in simply making stuff up about this? The council's budgets and accounts are published on their website! Such claims are instantly identifiable as lies. What's the basis for spreading them?
9

,

04/06/2008 22:12:37
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
10

Beachcomber,

Edinburgh 05/06/2008 01:12:17
Response to Westmonster petition:

2accountabilty - epetition reply3 June 2008

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to demonstrate his commitment to accountability and honesty by supporting the Elected Representatives (Prohibition of Deception) Bill, being introduced by Adam Price MP, Carmarthen East & Dinefwr, and holding an emergency debate on the issue."

Details of Petition:

"The representatives we elect should be held to account through independent, impartial, legal redress for making deliberately misrepresentative and misleading statements, in the same way we, the electorate, are via legislation such as the Financial Services Act, the Trade Descriptions Act, and the Property Mis-descriptions Act. We also invite the Prime Minister, his Party and the rest of our elected representatives to show their support by signing EDM 2091."

Read the petition
Petitions home page
Read the Government's responseThe Elected Representatives (Prohibition of Deception) Bill introduced by Adam Price MP with the intention of creating offences in relation to the publication of false or misleading statements by elected representatives had its first reading in the House of Commons on 17 October 2007 and it was subsequently dropped. However, elected representatives are not above the law and should they commit an offence, such as the criminal offence of deception, they would be liable to be prosecuted in the same way as any other member of the public. The Government therefore has no plans to legislate to create further criminal offences of deception.

More generally, the Prime Minister expects all elected representatives to recognise the responsibilities that arise from their position as public figures and to aspire to the very highest standards of propriety and rectitude in both their private and public lives.

Aye right
11

Duncan in Edinburgh,

05/06/2008 10:41:16
#9 It is not true, and the publicly available accounts show it not to be true. You are deliberately spreading misinformation, sir.

Let me explain that the council finances are quite separate from the council reserve fund, which is maintained in order to deal with unforeseen expenses and emergencies. The council finances were in a robust state when handed over, and the publicly available accounts show this fact. All talk of "black holes" in budgets was generated by the wet-behind-the-ears SNP and Liberals being ridden over roughshod by their officials.

The council reserves were indeed depleted to an almost unprecedented level two and a half years ago, when the whole council body - all parties, not just Labour but the SNP, the Lib Dems and the Tories too - voted to use the reserves to pay off the historic one-off cost of the settlement of the equal pay dispute - a cost which had been incurred over a period of more than 20 years, under successive different administrations.

If it is this depletion of the reserve fund to which you are referring, then to blame Labour for it, and to say that it meant the council was "down to its last brass farthing", are both so misleading as to be out and out lies.

 

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