What a school!

I was privileged to attend the opening of the new Eastwood High School which many pupils from Neilston attend. What a school! Stuart Maxwell, the head teacher, is rightly proud of the new building which he proudly describes as the best school building in the UK. The Labour led council has delivered a stunning building which will enhance the quality of the educational experience for pupils. I know from talking to pupils just how enthusiastic they are about their new school. Elaine Green and Paul O’Kane, Neilston’s Labour councillors also have a responsibility for education in East Renfrewshire, and they worked hard to make sure that the new building incorporated the views of staff and pupils. The new Eastwood High is setting standards in school building and already there have been visits from professionals across the UK who want to see how it can be done. Well done to everyone involved, from the politicians, to the architects and builders, and to the staff and pupils.

Energy rip-off Consumers in Barrhead, Neilston and Uplawmoor are rightly angry about the excessive price increases being imposed by the major energy companies. And now we find out that these companies have also been conning customers who thought they had a fixed price tariff for their gas and electricity supply. In some cases these companies were exploiting a loophole in wording to force up prices where consumers thought they were fixed. Did they not think they were already making enough money? So it’s well done to Ofgem the energy regulator which has now banned the energy companies from increasing fixed price tariffs during the period of agreement. Something has to be done about the big six energy companies, and that’s why Ed Miliband is right to promise a freeze on prices if Labour wins the UK election in 2015. But he is also right to want to toughen up the power of the regulators to enable them to give greater protection to customers. I believe that we also need a debate about whether the obscene profits being made should be returned to consumers (the people who pay), rather than the shareholders of these conglomerates. There are some services which are too important to be left to greedy companies.

Protection for shopworkers Recent press reports have yet again highlighted incidents where shopworkers have been attacked just for doing their job. A recent survey by the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied workers (USDAW) found that 4% of shopworkers had been physically attacked in the previous 12 months. It also found that 35% had been threatened with violence. Why should shopworkers, and indeed any worker who serves the public, be faced with threats, intimidation and violence, just for doing their job? That’s why I tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament saying that these workers needed more than warm words of support from politicians. The SNP Government has expressed sympathy in the past but has refused to take any action. My motion merely called on the Scottish Government to “build on previous expressions of support by bringing forward proposals that give more effective protection to workers who serve the public.” At the time of writing, only 2 SNP members had supported my motion. The rest are not prepared to say that there should be more effective protection for workers who serve the public. Why are they not willing to stand beside workers who are attacked while doing their jobs? It seems that slavish discipline to Alex Salmond’s orders is more important than doing the right thing for workers who are attacked. It’s just not good enough.