Scottish independence: Alex Salmond faces heat over project funding shortfall, £353 million expected to be raised by NPD, this financial year only £20 million, it is sheer incompetence to let government sail on without strong leadership, another pudding Alex?

Dear All

This term of the Scottish Government will go down on record as possibly the worst one since devolution.

Time for a quote from Alex Salmond:

“My problem is that I have too many talented people and not enough Cabinet positions”.

Sadly, for the people of Scotland, the truth is rather more stark and bleak; the Scottish Government has failed to deliver a £119 million investment for building schools, £65m for colleges, £27m for new roads and £39m for the Borders rail project this year.

The SNP Government Ministers are all off chasing the independence dream and abandoning their desks.

We have had no real government since 2011; the two bright spots of legislature have been the Scottish National Police Force and the National Fire Service.

My ideas which I gave the SNP on September 2010 at their National Assembly in Perth, since then my Police idea has been twisted and needs fixed!

It seems while ‘everything’ is about independence for the SNP, they forget that life goes on, such as doing the hard graft.

The Scottish Futures Trust was setup to a big fanfare because the previous PFI and PPP models were bad value for the taxpayer, so the SNP set up a new guango which we were told would improve matters dramatically.

The SFT revealed that plans to invest £119m in schools, £65m in colleges, £27m on the M8, M73 and M74, as well as £39m on the Borders rail link, had failed to materialise this year, so where is the money?

And why hasn’t it been spent to get projects underway?

The SFT document again raises the two key elements concerning the SNP Government, trust and competence.

As we are seeing in the flagship portfolio of health things are not quite what they seem, it seems that Ms. Sturgeon did a remarkable job spinning this department as functioning above average.

Newspaper reports coming out now show a different picture!

Now is time to get the microscope out and ask the hard questions to Salmond’s ‘talented’ people, like what have they been doing with their time?

Despite the government forecasting that £353m would be raised by the mechanism, the Scottish Government’s Non Profit Distribution (NPD) funding model in 2012-13, only £20m has been raised for this financial year.

It seems that the SNP Government has been keen to get their cronies and former candidates into Government and the price is now being paid by the taxpayer.

Time for a quote by Alex Salmond:

“My problem is that I have too many talented people and not enough Cabinet positions”.

Is it bad judgment to shit where you eat!

Opposition politicians have been quick to criticised the delay in cash raised by NPD introduced by the SNP that aims to encourage the investment of private cash in capital projects.

And in areas such as construction industry unhappy about delays, the support for independence will drop back as people realise that Alex Salmond has lost control of the ship.

This is a government on auto pilot sailing round in circles and hoping that no one will notice that nothing is being done and substance is lacking.

We don’t have strong government in 2012, Salmond has become old, tired, weak and incapable now.

He has a one track mind, independence, good government as I wrote years ago is the key, the indy vote needed two full terms in government of success to laid the mindset in people’s minds.

Salmond due to his stupidity jumped the gun, thinking that Labour unpopularity was SNP popularity, it isn’t.
    

At Holyrood, Alex Salmond has come under fire for suggesting that a lengthy legal challenge taken against plans to build a new Aberdeen bypass “might explain” why more cash has not been forthcoming this year, that is so mealy mouthed to be worth of contempt.

Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown said:

“This exposes the SNP’s failure to build the schools, hospitals, colleges and roads it promised this year. But the worst thing about it is the fact Alex Salmond attempted to blame the problems of his NPD scheme on the Aberdeen bypass. We knew that wasn’t correct, and this document today proves that. Not a penny had been earmarked for the bypass in 2012-13, yet the First Minister told the Scottish Parliament and the people of Scotland that the reason only a tiny fraction had been delivered was because of this. We now know it was vital projects like schools and hospitals that were falling victim, with money for the Aberdeen bypass not planned until 2013-14.”

Labour’s Richard Baker said:

“This is more evidence that while the SNP make lots of announcements about capital spending, helping to promote the economy, the figures tell the real story. Not one penny of the £119m Futures Trust funds meant to be spent on schools last year was actually spent, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Projects are delayed, money isn’t being spent, contracts aren’t being signed and jobs are being lost as a result. The SNP can’t answer the questions on why this money isn’t being spent.”

Independence in 2014, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have completely killed that idea stone dead.

The United States of Salmond won’t be getting declared in March 2016.

Alex Salmond better find a park bench, a ginger wig and a ‘cargo’ to get shit faced, 2014, the people of Scotland will get the opportunity to deliver a verdict on this omnishambles of a government.

Maybe SNP list MSP Joan McAlpine could sit on the same park bench and hold his hand telling him, he is still a leader of men, as he knocks back the bevy and a curry!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University