Scottish unemployment rises again as Alex Salmond tries to blame Westminster, time Salmond started accepting responsibility for his failures

Dear All

It seems that the Scottish Government has a lot to answer for unemployment in Scotland has increased again while falling across the UK as a whole.

The failures of Alex Salmond’s government are steadily mounting as nothing of any real note is getting done and disastrous bills such as higher taxes for empty properties get pushed through.

In another episode of his delusional reality, First Minister Alex Salmond put the blame for his incompetence squarely on Chancellor George Osborne citing "complacency".

When a jobs increase happens Salmond is quick to claim credit, when unemployment rises that’s ‘England’s fault’.

In Scotland the number of people who are unemployed increased by 4,000 to 218,000, this is entirely unacceptable.

The George Laird view that public sector reform should be carried out seems to gain more weight as Salmond struggles to run a part time government whose ministers seem keen to abandon their desks to chase the independence dream.

The unemployment rate north of the border remains above that for the UK as a whole, standing at 8.1% compared to 7.8%, Alex Salmond’s fault and more evidence that he should resign as First Minster, his time is up.

Alex Salmond should resign, this entire second term is turning into the worst term of any devolved government since Holyrood was created.

First Minister Alex Salmond hit out at the UK Government, claiming the "complacency" of Chancellor George Osborne was the "biggest danger to the economy", standard Salmond whingeing, the biggest danger is not carrying out public sector reform.

Alex Salmond accused the Westminster Government of "basking in the Olympics afterglow" and demanding more direct capital investment stimulus to boost the economy.

This idea of creating an artificial bubble is nonsense and on a par with previous economic judgements made by him which have turned out to be disastrously wrong. More debt will not solve the problem and clearly Salmond is out of his depth on the economy.

Salmond said:

"The biggest danger to the economy is the complacency of George Osborne. He should remember that the positive effect of the Olympics on employment will only last a few months whilst the impact of the decisions he makes in this forthcoming autumn statement will last for years."

We should remember the bad judgement of his SNP Government of spending £400k in the space of three weeks at the Olympics on his ‘vanity project’, the ‘Scottish London Embassy’.

£400,000 blown in three weeks!

Maybe its time that Alex Salmond starting accepting responsibility, we have already wasted a year and a half already!

What has Scotland to show for it?

A botched Yes Scotland independence campaign, ministers producing tripe, a ‘pie in the sky’ un-costed and unplanned high speed rail scheme and plenty of hot air.

Spin instead of substance.

Scots will have to wait till 2015, after all you can’t expect Salmond to do anything until after the independence referendum, and then there’s Xmas.

Three and a half years wasted, no wonder Scottish unemployment is high.

There is one more person that should join the unemployment statistic to help get Scotland moving again.

Alex Salmond.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University