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1 Feb 2019
The Scottish Conservatives are calling on education secretary John Swinney to intervene in the row over the closure of a pioneering college which has given Scottish youngsters a second chance.
Newlands Junior College in Glasgow, set up by entrepreneur Jim McColl, seeks to give opportunities to teenagers who have become disengaged from mainstream education, offering them skills to succeed in life.
Mr Swinney has previously given the initiative his support – but reports today suggest the college may close amid a dispute about funding with Glasgow City Council.
Newlands Junior College offers vocational education and training suited to the particular needs of young people who do not learn well in the mainstream educational system, but who have the potential to become useful contributors to society.
Shadow education secretary Liz Smith has written to Mr Swinney today to urge action.
In the letter, she says:
“Having seen for myself, on two separate occasions, the outstanding work that was taking place in the college to inspire young people who had felt disengaged from school, l was very persuaded of the role that such an institution can play in Scottish education.
“Too often at present in Scotland, we see attempts to diversify the educational experience thwarted, even when that diversification is proving successful.
“It is the Scottish Government’s ambition – rightly – to improve the educational experience for all young people. I would be grateful for your views on how this will be possible when an institution like this is forced to close.”
Newlands Junior College was also visited by Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.
1 Feb 2019
Teachers should be exempt from paying the SNP’s new car park tax in the same way NHS workers are, the Scottish Conservatives have said.
In yesterday’s budget, finance secretary Derek Mackay outlined plans to charge hundreds of pounds a year to firms whose staff took their car to work.
He said health service staff wouldn’t be affected by this charge, which was one of many punitive conditions of the SNP winning Green support for the budget.
Now shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser has argued – if the SNP government is insistent on ploughing ahead with the controversial plan – that teachers should also be removed from it.
He said this was particularly important if ministers wanted to agree a pay deal with teaching unions, in the face of recent threats of industrial action.
In addition, he urged the Scottish Government to start speaking to smaller firms to see how these extra levies would work and what impact they would have.
A similar pilot scheme in Nottingham resulted in charges of more than £400 a year for workers who drove to work.
The car park tax was part of a triple-tax bombshell unveiled yesterday, alongside the widening of the tax gap between Scotland and the rest of the UK, and further council tax rises.
Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said:
“If the SNP wants to crash ahead with this unpopular and ridiculous car park tax plan, the least it could do is exempt teachers.
“The nationalists find themselves in an absurd position of negotiating a pay rise for teachers, while threatening to charge them hundreds of pounds a year for the sake of driving to work.
“That will jeopardise current negotiations with unions, and could lead to them coming good on the industrial action they’ve recently threatened.
“If Derek Mackay thinks NHS workers are worthy of exemptions, then so too are teachers.
“As a matter of urgency, the SNP government also needs to start speaking to smaller firms who could be badly hit by this nonsense tax.
“It needs to establish how this levy will work and what impact it will have on this important part of our economy.”