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Christina McKelvie MSP has tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament to congratulate Hamilton Academical FC on retaining their Scottish Premier League status for another season.
Central Scotland MSP Christina said:
“Accies have had a great season, getting some fantastic victories under their belt. They thoroughly deserve to stay in the Premier League for another season.
“Bill Reid has shown excellent leadership of the team, and he and the players and staff all deserve to be given credit. Along with all Accies fans, I’ll be looking forward to seeing the team reach even greater heights next season.”
ENDS
The full text of Christina McKelvie’s motion reads:
S3M-06162 Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): Congratulations to Hamilton Accies— That the Parliament congratulates Hamilton Academical FC on retaining Scottish Premier League status for a further year; pays tribute to the players, fans, groundstaff and all other associated staff; gives praise to the manager, Billy Reid, for his excellent leadership of his team, and looks forward to another successful season for the Accies.
HUNDREDS OF DISABLED PEOPLE IN SOUTH LANARKSHIRE TO LOSE OUT UNDER LABOUR CUTS
Christina McKelvie, SNP MSP for Central Scotland, has echoed Scottish Government Public Health Minister Shona Robison’s “grave concern” about the future of the Independent Living Fund (ILF), which assists people with severe disabilities to access essential support. 279 people in South Lanarkshire currently receive the benefit.
Changes to the ILF eligibility criteria proposed by Labour at Westminster will massively reduce the numbers of people able to apply for assistance from 1 May this year, with Scotland being disproportionately affected. The Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) has calculated that, under the new criteria, only four new Scots applicants will be eligible for ILF this year.
Ms Robison has written to UK Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper to urgently raise her concerns.
Ms McKelvie endorsed Ms Robison’s action, saying:
“It is outrageous that in the dying days of their discredited government, Labour are sneaking through changes that will cut off essential financial support for potentially thousands of vulnerable people.
“Over three and a half thousand disabled people in Scotland rely on ILF to help them live as independently as they can. ILF currently affords 279 disabled people in South Lanarkshire a measure of dignity and self-sufficiency, but that source of lifeline support will be choked off in the future.
“Throughout their time in office, Labour have financially discriminated against disabled people, hacking away at disability benefits time and again and even threatening to abolish them altogether. They have been shameless in their repeated attacks on the welfare of vulnerable people.
“With their talk of ‘savage’ cuts, going even ‘deeper and tougher’ than those implemented by Margaret Thatcher, not one of the London parties can be trusted to protect those in our society who need it most. Their cuts consensus would hit our most vulnerable citizens hardest.
“I am appalled that Labour has effectively abolished ILF without a single word of discussion or consultation with the Scottish Government. It is a sign of the contempt in which they hold Scotland and Scottish interests.”
Notes:
1. The Independent Living Fund was set up as a UK-wide resource which offers additional financial assistance to disabled people already in receipt of support from social services to provide them with sufficient funds to access essential support. In Scotland, due to proactive Scottish local authority activity, ILF income is £61 million, 17 per cent of the ILF UK budget.
2. From 1 May 2010 ILF has now tightened its financial eligibility and is only accepting applications from people in paid employment of 16 or more hours per week. In effect this will mean that the ILF will be entirely closed to new applicants throughout the UK, apart from those very few in paid employment.
3. Based on UK statistics, ADSW (Association of Directors of Social Work) suggest that no more than four new Scottish applications will be processed in 2010/11.
4. Approximately 3,645 people in Scotland currently benefit from the ILF. There are 279 recipients in the South Lanarkshire local authority area.
Householders across South Lanarkshire have once again been spared a hike in their council tax, after MSPs endorsed the Scottish Government’s £70 million funding package to compensate local authorities for freezing the tax.
This is the third year in a row that Finance Secretary John Swinney has secured agreement from all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities to freeze council tax. This year’s freeze means that South Lanarkshire households have saved an average of £237 in council tax payments since the SNP came to power.
Christina McKelvie MSP has welcomed the latest freeze. The SNP MSP for Central Scotland said:
“I am delighted that South Lanarkshire householders will once again have the peace of mind of knowing that they will not be faced with a hike in their council tax bills. Freezing council tax for the third year in a row will ease the stress for household struggling with their finances just now.
“The partnership that the SNP government has forged with Scotland’s local authorities, including South Lanarkshire Council, to keep council tax rates down is helping people in a very real way. The £237 that the average South Lanarkshire household is saving as a result of the council tax freeze is money going back into pockets at a time when it has been badly needed.
“It has the additional benefit of boosting spending power within the South Lanarkshire economy, helping to support jobs and businesses.
“Labour in South Lanarkshire opposed this freeze – they would prefer to land South Lanarkshire households with a substantial hike in their council tax bills, wile they are still suffering from the effects of Gordon Brown’s recession. In contrast, the SNP is investing to help South Lanarkshire folk through this recession and strengthen the economic recovery of communities across Scotland.”
S3M-06144 Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): Sexual Trafficking of Men to Scotland— That the Parliament is deeply concerned at evidence from the NHS Open Road project that men are now being trafficked into Scotland for sexual purposes; notes that staff from the Open Road project report having been called on to assist in two separate cases in the past year where men had been trafficked from Africa to Scotland and forced into the sex trade; is concerned that this is evidence of sex traffickers expanding their activities in Scotland; calls on the Scottish and UK governments to take account of this development in the next update of their joint Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking, and pledges support for efforts to bring an end to the forced trafficking of human beings worldwide.
MSP cheers Tomas Cerny’s literacy catch
Hamilton Academical goalkeeper Tomas Cerny joined fellow SPL player Lukas Jutkiewicz of Motherwell FC and Scottish Government Skills Minister Keith Brown last week to champion the Reading Stars literacy campaign.
Now in its second year, SPL Reading Stars is endorsed by 12 clubs and 12 volunteer players and funded by the Scottish Government. Each player attends learning sessions at libraries near their club and has chosen their favourite adult and children’s book for their libraries to receive.
Local MSP Christina McKelvie congratulated Tomas and Hamilton Accies on their involvement in the Reading Stars campaign. The Central Scotland MSP said:
“As a hero to young Accies fans, Tomas is a great ambassador for reading. By talking about the important role that reading and books play in his life and in his sporting success, he can inspire football fans in Hamilton to pick up a book more often.
“The public involvement of well-known sportsmen like Tomas and his SPL colleagues will help people who want to improve their literacy skills to make the first step towards getting some local help and support.
“Last year, 91 per cent of the adults who took part in Reading Stars said that their family went on to read more and 100 per cent said their children read more after getting involved in the campaign, so it can make a real difference. I’m delighted that Hamilton Academical is so involved in the campaign.”
Tomas’s book choices are The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo for children and way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman for adults. Tomas said:
“I think reading is very important for everyone. You develop your mind, your language skills and imagination. It gives you access to knowledge humans have gathered in thousands of years. It opens new opportunities in your life. I realise that there is also TV and other resources, but compared to them, reading is a more active process and you remember more. For me, reading is much better and it can be great fun too. I truly enjoy it!”
More information about SPL Reading Stars can be found at http://www.thebigplus.com/bigplus/242.html
S3M-06063 Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): Making Children Participants, Not Pawns, in School Closure Consultations— That the Parliament welcomes the publication of the Participants, Not Pawns guidance by Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People (SCCYP); believes that this guidance acts as an important complement to the Schools Consultation Act (Scotland) 2010 in helping local authorities to ensure that their schools closure consultations abide by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, under which children are entitled to make their views known and have them taken seriously; agrees with SCCYP that it makes sense to give a central position to the views of children within a process that directly affects them, and commends SCCYP’s ongoing efforts to help Scotland’s public bodies engage more effectively, fairly and meaningfully with children and young people of all ages and abilities.
Christina McKelvie MSP has welcomed news that Blantyre’s most famous son, explorer and humanitarian David Livingstone, is to be immortalised in Scotland’s Parliament by having one of the Holyrood building’s committee rooms named after him.
The Scottish Parliament authorities have taken up a suggestion that each of the six committee rooms should be named in commemoration of a historical figure who made a significant contribution to Scotland. The other five rooms will be named after Robert Burns, women’s education pioneer Mary Fairfax Somerville, discoverer of penicillin Alexander Fleming, physicist James Clerk Maxwell and economist and philosopher Adam Smith.
45 MSPs put forward 170 nominations for the committee rooms’ names. Central Scotland MSP Christina nominated David Livingstone for the honour. She said:
“As soon as I heard about the idea to name the committee rooms after great Scots, I immediately suggested David Livingstone. His contribution to the world encapsulates so much for Scotland to be proud of.
“As an explorer, Livingstone enhanced human knowledge by charting parts of Africa previously unknown to the rest of the world. For me, though, his opposition to slavery and his belief that no one race has the right to rule over another is even more important than his geographical discoveries.
“His humanitarian legacy is why he continues to be honoured across southern and central Africa today and why he should be celebrated by his fellow Scots.
“I am delighted that this son of Lanarkshire will be immortalised along with these other great Scots in our Parliament building.”
Christina McKelvie MSP joined local sportsmen, women and teams at Hamilton Sports Council’s annual Sports Performer Awards to celebrate some outstanding sports achievements from the past year.
The awards ceremony was held on Monday 22 March at South Lanarkshire Council headquarters in Hamilton.
Central Scotland MSP Christina presented the Adult Female award to golfer Pamela Pretswell and cheered on the other winners, who were:
Junior Female: Kirsty Gilmour (Badminton)
Junior Male: Ross Inglis (Rugby)
Adult Male: Daryn Duncan (Tae Kwon Do)
Senior Team: Peter & Stephen McGuire (Boccia)
Junior Team: Hamilton Academicals Girls Football U17
Club of the Year: Blantyre Miners Amateur Boxing Club
Coach of the Year: Jim Ross (Karate).
Congratulating all the winners, Christina said:
“It’s always heartening to see the real breadth of sporting achievement that we have in the Hamilton area, with men and women of all ages taking part and excelling in all kinds of sports.
“I hope that this year’s winners will act as an encouraging example to others to take advantage of the sporting opportunities that exist in the Hamilton area, whether it’s for exercise, socialising or just for fun.
“We hear a lot about how girls and young women are reluctant to take part in sport, so Pamela, Kirsty and the Hamilton Accies girl’s team are particularly inspiring role models in that regard.
“I congratulate all of this year’s winners and look forward to hearing about another year of sporting achievement in Hamilton in 2011!”
Christina spoke in the Stage 3 debate on 25 March.
“It is always nice to warm our hands at a wee bonfire and it is lovely to have a wee toastie fire of the things that we do not need. I am delighted to see the first flames licking around the feet of the quango state. Being an accomplished fire walker, I know how that feels.
“I like the fact that the Government will be able to change the functions and operations of quangos much more easily in the future. The role that Parliament will have in any decisions that ministers want to take in relation to quangos means that parliamentary scrutiny of the quango state will carry with it a rather large stick. I appreciate that some members might disagree with me on that point, but I am sure that they will come round in the fullness of time.
“There are serious safeguards in the legislation now. The powers to change quangos, which the bill will introduce, are similar to the powers in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. I like the parts that require public bodies to publish details about their financial transactions and the pay of their top cats. I also like the idea that details of payments to special advisers will be published. Open and transparent government is one of the founding principles of this place.”
Read the full debate here.