Osborne's Research Attack Boomerangs on Anti-Independence Campaign

The anti-independence campaign suffered a humiliating setback today (Friday) as an attack on science and research in an independent Scotland rebounded badly upon George Osborne.

Mr Osborne claimed that Scotland’s universities and research would suffer after independence, however just last month the Scottish Council for Development and Industry warned that their “biggest source of concern" for the future of research in Scotland was Westminster’s tightening of student visas.

Click for SCDI's warning

The SCDI gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament warning that the tightening of student visas “is a huge challenge to universities socially and financially and to Scotland economically".

Scotland’s universities punch well above their weight when it comes to innovation, contributing 12.4% of UK research. Much of the funding for such research comes on a pan-European level, such as through the €80 billion Horizon 2020, which is currently being threatened by moves at Westminster to isolate the UK from the rest of Europe.

Commenting, SNP MSP Dr Aileen McLeod said:

“This is a spectacular own-goal by George Osborne as only last month the SCDI warned that it was Westminster’s student visa policy that was the ‘biggest source of concern’ for Scotland’s university research sector.

“Far from an independent Scotland damaging research, it is having the powers to set our own policies that will allow us to protect our cutting edge research sector.

“Perhaps George Osborne has simply not been paying attention to what impact Westminster’s decisions are having in Scotland, but his ill-judged statement is hugely embarrassing for him.

“He is either oblivious to what is happening in Scotland or else he is being intentionally disingenuous.

“Scotland's universities currently participate in a wide range of international research funding collaborations involving multiple funding sources, including national research councils in many countries and international agencies (including the EU), who support the cutting edge research for which Scotland's universities rightly are recognised.

“Mr Osborne seems to be making the astonishing assertion that following independence research councils south of the border would be debarred from including Scotland's research universities alone in such collaborations. These threats don't work and won't work.

“Scotland’s research sector punches above its weight, but if it is to continue to do so we need the powers of an independent Scotland to ensure that it is not sabotaged by short-sighted decisions at Westminster."

Lamont Must Use Cuts Commission Debate to Clarify 'Something for Nothing' Claim

LABOUR LEADER ADMITS SHE PLANS MEANS-TESTING
Johann Lamont must use today’s debate on the Labour Cuts Commission to explain exactly who she believes is ‘getting something for nothing’, having refused to clarify the remarks in the week following her controversial speech.

Repeatedly questioned on Good Morning Scotland on Tuesday (2 October), Johann Lamont refused to identify who she believed was ‘getting something for nothing’ and failed to reveal whether she was comfortable with the fact that the Tories agreed with her statements. She also confirmed her support for introducing means testing for many universal policies, stating: “I think what we need to do is identify need”.

Until they were abolished last year by the SNP, 600,000 people across Scotland with an income of less than £16,000 were charged for their prescriptions when they became ill, an estimated 8,900 of whom were in Johann Lamont’s own constituency of Glasgow Pollok.

Last week Johann Lamont repeatedly attacked the principle of free prescriptions during the launch of her Cuts Commission, although others in her party have challenged her leadership by voicing doubts over her stance on the issue.

Commenting, SNP MSP Aileen McLeod said:

“Many one-time Labour voters will have been shocked by Johann Lamont’s adoption of Tory dogma when she says that people are ‘getting something for nothing’.

“What is even more bizarre though is that now she will not even say who it is that she thinks is ‘getting something for nothing’.

“Is it the estimated 8,900 people in her own constituency who earn less than £16,000, but until last year had to pay prescription charges when they got ill?

“Johann Lamont may be fond of ducking difficult questions, but she cannot credibly make an outrageous attack of this nature without revealing who it is she thinks is not contributing to Scotland’s social contract.

“When she is being praised to the heavens by the Tories in Scotland and even the Tories in Wales, you would hope she might realise just how badly thought through her Cuts Commission is.

“Instead of Johann Lamont striving to become a poster-girl for the Tories by unpicking the social contract that binds Scotland together, she should be standing up for the thousands of people in her own constituency and across the country that the SNP is assisting in these difficult times.”