#POLITIKS

#POLITIKS

Andy McCann tells explains local foodco-ops and how they help

Poverty is on the rise

Independence ReferendumUps, Downs, Ins and Outs

POLITICS FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Youth Employment SuccessShould Westminster follow Scotlands

lead after a drop in unemploymentrates?

Magazine Supplement_Layout 1 13/04/2014 00:10

CONTENTS

What’s Inside..

P3 - 6 The What’s-What of Scottish Independence

P7 - 8 High Cost of Living Results in an Increase in Food Services

P8 - 9Scotland Tackles Youth Unemployment

Yes Scotland and Better Together make their argu-ments, who will you choose?

Food banks and co-ops are cropping upeverywhere, but why?

Scotlands youth unemployment rate drops by al-most a quarter, what’s their secret?

One


Two


Once its own country, now a na-tion within the UK, Scotland hasbeen part of the union since 1707when the Parliament of Englandand the Parliament of Scotlandagreed upon the terms of theTreaty of Union, in turn creating“Great Britain”.

After the devolution referendumof 1998, Scotland was given morepowers from Westminster in areaslike environment, health and edu-cation.

Due to devolution the nation hasprovided it’s people such things asfree prescriptions and free tuitionfees, when the rest of the UK doesnot, this is be-cause we arenow in con-trol of thesecertain serv-ices.

A lot ofScots believethat devolution was just a babystep and the big leap will be a,once again, independent Scotland;a Scotland that is in control of allits resources, services and fi-nances; a Scotland that has a truedemocracy – though not all tend toagree. This is why a referendum isto be held on September 18, 2014to decide the fate of the nation.

Yes Scotland and Better To-gether are the two larger cam-paigns, though there are others,that represent the parties, individu-als and organisations which will bevoting to part ways or to remain inthe union.

They continue to debate andthrow accusations at one another,giving reasons for and against theseparation of the union, thoughthe one (and only) thing the twoorganisations seem to agree on is

the voting age for the referendumbeing lowered to the age of 16.

Gail Lythgoe, the executive assis-tant of the organisation Yes Scot-land, says: “I’ve been going aroundspeaking in a lot of schools and col-leges recently and some of thebest and most insightful questionscome from young people, theytend to have a fresher perspectiveon the campaign and how it mighteffect them.”

Better Together’s Communica-tions Officer, Ross MacRae, backsthis up and says: “I’m somebodythat has campaigned for votes atsixteen for a long time, so I’m de-

lighted that six-teen andseventeenyear olds aregetting tovote in thisreferendum,

but also thatthey’re getting involved!”

This seems about as much as thetwo campaigns agree on through-out their campaigns though.Through most of the broadcasteddebates both sides seem to bevery ‘he said, she said’ and neverreally get to the bottom of anyquestions being asked – a good ex-ample of this is the debate be-tween Nicola Sturgeon and JohannLamont on STV, in February.

The debate was described as a“stairheed rammy” from bothsides, Gail says: “I don’t think itwas particularly useful. I stoppedwatching it after ten minutes be-cause you saw where it was going.To be honest though we’ve seenfour debates with Nicola Sturgeonand two of them have beenagainst Westminster MP’s and twoof them against Scottish Labour

The‘What’s-what’ oftheScottishRefer-endum

A country where old glass Irn Bru bottles are used forcurrency and Haggis’ run wild through the heather andscrub of the highlands– or that’s what seems to springto mind when people think of Scotland taking charge

of itself, but what will it really mean?

“STAIRHEEDRAMMY”

Three


VS“I think the head of the Yes Campaign

and the head of Better Together shouldget in a room and debate.”


folk. Now, there’s a certain dynamic in Scotland where theSNP/Labour can get quite tribal. But then I also think thatthe Scottish Labour Party deliberately took the tactic tomake it into a ‘stairheed rammy.’

“They want it to look tribal. They want to reduce the visionand remove it from the things we can achieve and reduce itto a ‘stairheed rammy’ where it’s just more of the same be-cause that’s in their interest to win. If people aren’t inspiredto vote, then they won’t vote for change and that is theirtactic.”

Ross, from Better Together, described it all as “a bit moreof a combat sport, rather than a one side says one thing andone side says another sort of debate”, but then thinks thatthese debates are extremely important.

“I think it’s right that our leaders are getting on televisionand are questioning each other, putting out arguments andpeople are seeing what the arguments really are from bothsides. That’s why I think the head of the Yes Campaign andthe head of Better Together should get in a room and de-bate. I think it’s time that Alex Salmond accepted AlistairDarling’s offer for a debate and got in the studio.”

The only problem is Alex Salmond isn’t the head of the YesCampaign, Blair Jenkins is. It seems that silly slip ups like thismay make some question whether Better Together - and theparties involved - are as clued up and competent as theyshould be.

For example, in First Ministers Questions (FMQ’s) on Wen-desday, February 5, Johann Lamont claimed that supermar-kets (like Morrisons and ASDA) didn’t fully agree withindependence and they had come forth and said priceswould go up – this was not the case though. Looks like Jo-hann didn’t do enough research.

Gail expands on this: “the supermarkets are a really goodexample of that, they’ve all now issued statements to thecontrary to say this is not what they meant, there’s no need

for costs to rise in an in-dependent Scotland.There’s a really interest-ing article on the Busi-ness for Scotlandwebsite and it actuallyshows that prices coulddecrease in an inde-pendent Scotland be-cause we’d be bringingthe products and theconsumer closer to-gether. That meansthere’s a linked up sup-ply chain and there’s notso far to travel, etc. Andif we create a businessenvironment of eco-nomic growth thatmade sure wages werehigher, it would meanthe cost of living wouldtherefore decrease.

“There’s actually ahuge advantages in a Yesvote for supermarkets and for consumers. You’ll also noticerecently in a very similar tone to the supermarkets. Therewas Standard Life comments last week and various corpora-tions like this, what Standard Life actually said was they’vebeen told by their financial services authority that they haveto, for the year ahead, look at what’s going to happen andevery business, every organisation does a swat analysis – itwould be daft not to – and you recognise you have to lookat what might happen and what you have to do to counterit. So, they have to look at ‘what if this happens’ they have

“They want it to look tribal. They want to reduce the vision and remove it fromthe things we can achieve”

“The Scottish govern-ment has a clear responsi-

bility to tell the Scottishpeople how it would managethe damaging effects of the

changed in higher educationand research that separa-

tion would bring.”


“They want it to look tribal. They want to reduce the vision and remove it fromthe things we can achieve”

to look at ‘what if in-dependence hap-pens’ and they haveto consider that itwould probablymean different em-ployment laws inScotland. Now, that’sa good thing in myview, that we havebetter employmentlaws and a differenttax system would beimplemented so theywould have to, notnecessarily spendmoney, but they’dhave to adjust theiroperations, but assoon as you say ‘ad-just your operations’BBC goes crazy andeveryone goes crazyover it. But really

what that means isthere could be a simpler tax system, which makes the burdeneasier for Standard Life or particularly for small businesses.”

With a rising number of those planning on voting ‘yes’ inSeptember there are still an incredible amount of people whofeel they are in the dark when it comes to the debate and oneof the biggest concerns for young people is tuition fees andwhat will happen with them.

MP’s from the Westminster Scottish affairs committee havesaid the impact would be “far greater than acknowledged by

the Scottish Government.”A report by the committee claims the Scottish govern-

ment’s proposals to make students from the rest of the UKpay tuition fees while allowing free access to the rest of theEU “would not be legally sustainable.”

Chair of the committee, Labour MP Ian Davidson, says: “TheScottish government has a clear responsibility to tell the Scot-tish people how it would manage the damaging effects of thechanged in higher education and research that separationwould bring.”

Gail says this would not be the case: “in EU law, an objec-tive justification and that objective justification means there isan objective reason which is justified as to why you are divert-ing from the normal course, and there has been quite a lot ofchat and academic studies into why this would be realistic forScotland and one of the key reasons is that currently only onepercent or English students come to Scotland, see if just tenpercent of English students were to come to Scotland theywould swamp our universities and there would be no spacefor Scottish students.

“It’s a very interesting discussion, and I don’t see any rea-son why we can’t continue free education in Scotland. It’s allabout priorities, really. There’s no reason England couldn’thave tuition fees if they wanted to, it’s about priorities. If youchoose to spend 100 billion pounds on trident or nuclearweapons, which even Tony Blair says is just a status symbolnow and he said that in his memoirs, you are choosing not toinvest that in education. It’s all about priorities, there’s noreason we couldn’t continue to afford free education in Scot-land, for Scottish students. I would love to educate the worldfor free, but we then we need to empower them to havegood universities and good schools in order to help with thatreally.”

“The Scottish govern-ment has a clear responsi-

bility to tell the Scottishpeople how it would managethe damaging effects of the

changed in higher educationand research that separa-

tion would bring.”

Six


When people think of poverty the usual go to is to think ofthe dirty slums of India or malnourished children of Africa butin recent years poverty has hit home, in the UK.

There is more to it all than just being poor; there are severaltypes of poverty for example food poverty and fuel poverty –people who can’t afford to eat or to heat their homes. Theseare the most common types there are in the UK at the mo-ment and it’s all happening much closer to home than youmay think.

Many people blame the recession, the bankers or the gov-ernment but playing the blame game does not help thosewho are in most desperate need of help.

The Trussell Trust have estimated that numbers of those re-ceiving emergency food in 2012-13 are 100,000 higher than an-ticipated, the UK Foodbank charity says this “must be a

wake-up call to the nation.” It’s the biggest rise in numberssince the charity began back in 2000.

The charity says it “has seen a 76% increase in the number offoodbanks launched since April 2012 but has seen a 170% in-crease in numbers of people given emergency food. Well es-tablished foodbanks that have been running for several yearsare showing significant rises in numbers helped during the last12 months.”

To meet demand the organisation is also opening threebrand new foodbanks every week and so far, has launched245 foodbanks in partnership with churches and communities.

MP for Hamilton West and Rutherglen, Tom Greatrex hasraised the issues of food poverty in Westminster, a number oftimes, as more than half a million people are accessing foodbanks which is ten times higher than previous years.

“One of the issues is a lot of people are facing a strugglewith a cost of living. More and more people are now in a situa-tion where they’re struggling to feed their families and are infuel and food poverty.

“This is people in employment as well as the unemployed,because of less hours and zero hour contracts.”

Mr Greatrex has been trying to find funding to open moreplaces called food co-ops North and South Lanarkshire.

Food co-ops focus around the availability of affordable freshfruit and vegetables in the area. When people are able to ac-cess fresh fruit and vegetables at largely reduced prices, andthey also offer advice on meals to cook and ways to use them- which could help improve peoples’ lives.

People like, Food Poverty Project Manager, Andy McCannare the types of people who helps organise and build serviceslike this.

Poverty was always thought of as a thing of the pastfor the UK, but recently that has not been the case.

“It’s an intervention,it’s not the

norm.”

According to the Trussell Trust Charity, majority ofpeople recieving help are working age families.


High Cost of LivingResults in an Increase

in Food Service Consumers

He says: “I set up food co-ops, recruit volunteers and runthem. It’s part of the food poverty project, so it ties in withfood co-ops, breakfast clubs and assisting with food mappingof the area to find out where is in crisis. I work with a com-pany called Community Links and we are funded by the BigLottery Fund.

“A food co-op is a community shop. Run by the community,for the community. It’s been setup to bring affordable andfresh produce to people in areas of social deprivation. I’ve goteight to set up. There are two in Hamilton, one in Rutherglen.

“ I worked in the north for a long time, running food co-ops,and North Lanarkshire is quite busy with food co-ops butSouth Lanarkshire doesn’t seem to be as busy. A matter offact, I think there’s only been one or two in existence beforewe started.”

Andy explains that the Food Co-op’s like the one’s he helpswith aren’t just for food but describes them as “informationhubs”, the Hamilton co-op also offers a service called ‘Select’which teaches people how to find their way around the jobcentre website; as it is all run digitally now.

Many people have worries that the food banks and co-opswill just be abused by those who are fully capable of feedingthemselves and their families, meaning those who are in areal need of help will be stigmatised as thieves and liars.

Andy explains: “You can’t abuse the food co-ops, they’reopen to all. It’s for everybody; it’s not just for people on bene-fits it’s for anybody. It’s cheaper than everybody else; it’s bet-

ter quality. You can’t abuse us, we’re a shop we will sell toanybody, and the only thing we ask is what your postcode is,whether you’re from the area or not so we can track whatarea’s are using us. “Right now, the whole food crisis thing, it’s become some-thing that’s there. The media has picked up on it. They put iton Panorama and they had that programme ‘Famous, Richand Hungry’ which I think was a very condescending pro-gramme. I watched five minutes of it and got really annoyed.Someone begged and thought it was fun, which was disgrace-ful. The another raided through a bin and then didn’t under-stand why the guy was crying.

“Then there’s the perception that anyone can walk into afood bank, say ‘right thanks’ and then just walk out. That’sjust a perception - you can’t abuse it. You have to go to the re-ferrers, convince them you’re in need and then, get referredto go to the food bank and pick your food up and you canonly do it a certain number of times in a time limit. It’s an in-tervention, it’s not the norm.”

You can help others while gaining skills and experience,which you may not be able to get anywhere else, by volun-teering.

Go to your local councillor and they should be able to tellyou where your nearest food bank, co-op or any places need-ing volunteers are. Places like these are always looking formore hands to help.

Seven


Scotland TacklesYouth Unemployment

There was a noticeable reduction in youth unemployment inScotland last year, the numbers had dropped by 25.73 per cent;though Westminster MPs and the Commons Library has calcu-lated that the whole of the UK’s young unemployed couldform a dole queue that stretches all the way from London toEdinburgh, or fill an area the size of Leeds.

Westminster MPs have launched a Cross-Party Group (CPG)exclusively focussing on youth unemployment, but here inScotland we already have a Minister dedicated to it, and theCPG for Children and Young People which examined the issue.

Is this why the employment rate in Scotland has been so suc-cessful in the last year? It’s a possibility, but some say it is downto the improvement of the economy in the country.

Employment Minister Esther McVey says: “the growing econ-omy is helping record numbers of people to find a job.

“The rise in employment is being fuelled by businesses andentrepreneurs across the UK who are feeling increasingly con-fident with the improving economy.”

Though Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, RachelReeves, has disagreed and stated that long-term unemploy-ment for those aged 16-24 has doubled since David Cameron

has been in power. She says: “It’s clear tens of thousands of young

people are not feeling any recovery at all.” Scotland’s CPG for Children and Young people held

a meeting on youth employability in 2012, the groupcovers a wide range of subjects but co-convener, Marco BiagiMSP, says they may come back to the issue soon.

He says: “Youth unemployment is a huge issue that we takevery seriously, which is why we in Scotland are unique in Eu-rope in having a dedicated Minister for Youth Employment.Cross-Party Groups are a great way of bringing people to-gether to discuss issues away from the partisanship of the par-liamentary chamber, but real decision making happenselsewhere.

“Having a dedicated Minister makes sure that creating jobsfor young people is at the heart of Government policy and thisis really delivering results, with youth employment in Scotlandbeing higher than in the rest of the UK.

“There’s a role to be played for local authorities in support-ing jobs, but the most effective policy levers are at a nationallevel. We’ve significantly increased investment in apprenticesto help young people develop the skills they need, and keepinghigher and further education free means that young peoplehave the opportunity to get an education without the massiveburden of debt that students in the rest of the UK have to takeon.”

Between jobs, jobless, without gainful employ-ment, unoccupied; a person without a paid job butavailable to work.

Eight


Scotland TacklesYouth Unemployment

Many argue that even employment doesn’t guaranteeenough money to sustain a person with the likes of zerohour contracts.

Contracts, like these, often mean people not working forthree weeks and then on the fourth working 40 hours atshort notice.

Mr Biagi says: “The white paper on independence, Scot-land’s Future, lays out the Scottish Government’s vision forwhat it would do with the powers of independence. Many ofthe proposals outlined in the white paper – such as makingsure that the minimum wage rises at least with the cost ofliving and keeping education free – would be of great bene-fit to young people.

“The white paper also discusses the possibility of enshrin-ing a youth guarantee to employment, education or trainingin the constitution of an independent Scotland, ensuringthat future governments are obliged to provide opportuni-ties for all young people.“

Even though the unemployment rate is dropping in the UKthere seems to be a black hole, (once you’re in it’s hard toget out) the Scottish government appear to be really fo-cussing on helping this group of people and it shows it’sworking – should Westminster take a leaf out of their book?

“Creating jobs foryoung people is atthe heart of Govern-ment policy andthis is really deliv-ering results, withyouth employmentin Scotland beinghigher than in therest of the UK.”

Nine


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