 | 'Every pensioner in Drumchapel and Anniesland shopping centres remembers the 75p rise Chancellor Gordon Brown gave them last year.' Douglas Fraser and Torcuil Crichton in the Sunday Herald 19 th November 2000. |  |
| 'Every pensioner in Drumchapel and Anniesland shopping centres remembers the 75p rise Chancellor Gordon Brown gave them last year.' Douglas Fraser and Torcuil Crichton in the Sunday Herald 19 th November 2000. | |
MSPs on the cross-party committee are apparently set to call for the cost of personal as well as nursing care for old folk in residential homes, or receiving help at home, to be met in full by the state as recommended in the Sutherland Report. They want "an unambiguous commitment to increased funding".
Their conclusions will increase pressure on First Minister Henry McLeish who has indicated he would like to move in this direction and has included the issue in his current policy review. The stumbling block for the Executive is finding the money with the cost estimated at around £110m.
Speaking on BBC TV, both SNP health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon and Deputy Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm condemned the leaking of the report which was due to be published within a week or so. A copy was claimed to have been obtained by the Holyrood programme.
On the general issue of care for the elderly, Mr Chisholm said the Executive had made the choice to concentrate on improving home care for the elderly with £100m of funding and by speeding up delayed discharges from hospital. He pressed the SNP, which supports full implementation of the Sutherland Report, to say where the money should come from.
Health Committee convener Margaret Smith of the Liberal Democrats said she would report the leak to the Standards Committee. Such actions are a breach of the Parliamentary code of conduct.
There was also press speculation yesterday that Chancellor Gordon Brown would be opposed to full implementation of the Sutherland Report in Scotland as it is not being contemplated south of the Border.
Ms Sturgeon accused him and Labour in London of putting obstacles in the way of elderly people in Scotland having their personal care costs met.
Voting for the SNP in the by-elections for the Glasgow Anniesland seats at Holyrood and Westminster was "a golden opportunity" for the voters to end Labour back-tracking, she said.
Mr Brown will join the by-elections campaigns later today when he visits the BAe Systems shipyard in Scotstoun.
On the eve of his arrival, Labour went on the the offensive over shipbuilding, claiming the SNP's policy of a separate Scotland would mean the closure of the Scotstoun yard and the yard in Govan also owned by BAe Systems.
Scotland Minister Brian Wilson said the events of recent weeks had confirmed the importance of MoD orders to the Clyde. As things now stood, both yards could look forward to new work.
He said: "Yet these orders simply would not be available if the Nationalists succeeded in their sole aim of divorcing Scotland from the rest of the UK. MoD orders like these would continue to be built in UK yards and that would exclude Scotland."
Labour also turned on the Scottish Socialist Party, accusing MSP Tommy Sheridan of using a Scottish Parliament pre-paid second-class envelope to send out SSP election material. They have complained of "Parliamentary abuse" to Presiding Officer Sir David Steel.
Mr Sheridan in turn accused Labour of "running scared" and "lashing out in all directions" because they had realised from their own canvassing that support was now moving to the SSP. The party's candidates in Anniesland, Rosie Kane (Holyrood) and Charlie McCarthy (Westminster), meanwhile called for extra taxes on the rich to help close a gap between rich and poor highlighted by a new report showing 500 people in Britain earned £5bn last year.
Conservative candidates Kate Pickering (Holyrood) and Dorothy Luckhurst (Westminster) said they were confident of a strong vote on Thursday.
Voting takes place on Thursday in both by-elections.
-Nov 20th
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