Post Office Apologises to MP for Rothienorman Failure

Post Office officials have apologised to Banff & Buchan MP Eilidh Whiteford for their failure to communicate properly with Rothienorman residents last month when the Mobile Service was unavailable.

The lack of service also affected Cuminestown, where the Mobile Service also calls five days per week.

Local MP Dr Whiteford contacted Post Office management after concerns were raised with her by local residents at the end of February, and the service was restored by the end of that week. However, Post Office chiefs have now issued a formal apology for the lack of service at that time.

In a letter to the Banff & Buchan MP, Post Office spokesperson Linda Bonar said:

“Please accept our sincere apologies for the recent failure of the Post Office mobile service and for the inconvenience caused to the residents at Rothienorman. The mobile service van had been experiencing problems and had been booked in for a service and MOT which had brought to light faults that needed to be rectified before the van could be considered roadworthy, however this doesn’t excuse the lack of communication with Rothienorman residents when this problem occurred.

“The issue regarding communication with the residents has been addressed with the Post Office manager responsible for this mobile service.”

Commenting, Eilidh Whiteford MP said:

“This is a welcome acknowledgement from Post Office management that they fell below their service standards on this occasion.

“The service is greatly valued by residents in Rothienorman and Cuminestown who speak to me about it and the staff who run the service do an excellent job. However, on this occasion it appears both staff and customers were let down by a failing on the part of the Post Office to let people know what was going on.”

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Welfare Cap is a Crude Blunt Instrument

Commenting on the vote at Westminster to support the Tories’ plan for a permanent cap on welfare spending, which was supported by the vast majority of Labour MPs despite a small backbench rebellion, local MP and SNP Welfare spokesperson Dr Eilidh Whiteford said:

“The SNP voted against the welfare cap because it piles yet more pain onto our poorest pensioners, carers, disabled people and low income families. This cap is just a crude, blunt, instrument. It is shocking that so many Scottish Labour MPs have backed the Tories, especially after the rhetoric at their conference in Perth.

“The cap once again puts the most disadvantaged people in our communities on the front line. It is blatant ring-wing politics, not aimed at solving any of the long term problems which are getting worse because of Westminster’s austerity agenda, an agenda now supported by all the anti-independence parties.

“The best way to reduce and manage welfare spending is to restore the economy to a state of health, and that’s what this Westminster government is failing to do. If the government was serious about reducing welfare spending, it would be creating more job opportunities in sectors that pay a living wage; it would be investing more in childcare to enable parents to work or increase their hours; and it would be building more affordable homes and taking action on housing costs.

“In Scotland we’re spending a lower proportion of revenue and GDP on social protection than the UK as a whole, and we have invested heavily in affordable housing, with the highest rate of new build social sector homes anywhere in the UK. Only with a Yes vote in September can we get all welfare decisions back to Scotland, and ensure that we have no more of this crude short term political gesturing, and really tackle our problems.”

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UK Budget "Discriminates Against Women"

OSBORNE’S BENEFITS & TAX CHANGES HIT WOMEN FOUR TIMES HARDER THAN MEN
Scottish National Party spokesperson for Work and Pensions Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP has said the UK government’s Budget discriminates against - women as benefits and tax changes continue to hit them the hardest.

The introduction of a fixed cap on welfare spending will have a disproportionate impact on women who are already bearing the brunt of UK government cuts, with 80 per cent of money already slashed from the welfare bill coming from women. Analysis also shows women have been hit hardest by previous cuts to tax credits.

Research by the House of Commons Library shows that the Chancellor’s tax and benefit strategy since 2010 has raised a net £3.047 billion (21 per cent) from men and £11.628 billion (79 per cent) from women. The Chancellor’s three-year freeze in child benefit, usually paid to the mother, took £1.26 billion from women but only £26 million from men. Conversely, men reaped the most benefit from Mr Osborne’s decision to reduce the top rate of tax on income over £150,000 a year from 50p to 45p. Some 85 per cent of the gains went to men, and only 15 per cent to women.

While Osborne has raised Personal Tax Allowance in his 2014 budget, it does nothing to help the poorest people earning too little to pay the tax in the first place – the majority of whom are women.

Commenting, Dr Whiteford said:

“The UK government have had a woeful record over the last four years when it comes to women, and George Osborne’s budget this week did nothing to change that.

“The welfare state is being dismantled by Westminster, and woman are being the hardest hit. Some 80 per cent of money already slashed from the welfare bill has come from women’s pockets, and this new cap will put women in the front line of cuts for years to come.

"It is only with the financial powers of an independent Scotland that we can deliver the policies the SNP are pledged to - such as transforming childcare, building up to 1,140 hours for all children from age one to primary school, which will help more women into the workplace. We will be able to increase the minimum wage by at least the cost of living every year, and reverse the welfare reforms that hit women the hardest - particularly the plan to pay benefits to the household instead of directly to second earners, most of whom are women. These are just some of the things we can, should and must achieve with a Yes vote.”

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Tory Peer Causes Anger with Food Bank Comments

Tory peer Lord Tebbit has caused outrage with his comments in the House of Lords that people who visit food banks are at the same time spending their money on ’junk food’. Speaking in House of Lords debate on the alarming growth in food bank use in the UK because of the coalition government’s austerity programme – Lord Tebbit said there was a ‘near infinite demand’ for valuable goods given away free and asked ministers to ‘initiate research into junk food sales in areas where people are relying for basic food on the food banks’.

He made the comments moments after a Tory environment minister, Lord de Mauley, shocked fellow peers by saying food banks are not a ‘scandal’ but a sign of Britain's charity and ministers should not seek to 'interfere' in their use.

Commenting Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP, SNP Work and Pensions spokesperson said:

"This shows just how out of touch the Tories are. We live in a country brimming with resources and talent but we are now reducing the most vulnerable people in society to using food banks - who now find that they are then mocked and pilloried like this by a peer of the realm. It is just offensive. Lord Tebbit is one of over 800 unelected, unaccountable peers who can turn up for half an hour’s work and earn £300 a day, yet they can still spout this arrogant nonsense. Lords Tebbit and

De Mauley are not alone though. Lord Freud – the millionaire Tory welfare minister told his colleagues last July that the growth of food banks is not linked to growing poverty and hunger – merely that people ‘wish to get food for free'. We know that the Trussell Trust, the charity which oversees more than 400 Food Banks across the UK, has figures that 614,000 adults and children received help from its food banks in the first nine months of 2013-14, compared with 350,000 for all of 2012-13.

“A Yes vote in September gives the people of Scotland a choice of two futures. Lord Tebbit’s comments go a long way to illustrate what kind of future is on offer from Westminster. Food banks – the Bedroom Tax and Pay Day loans. The evidence that the UK is an unequal society was again highlighted by research from Oxfam at the beginning of the week which revealed that just five families in the UK are worth more than the poorest 20% of the entire UK population, an absolutely indefensible situation. Only with the full powers of independence can we create the fairer, more prosperous and democratic society we all want for Scotland.”

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