From Scottish Housing News today:
‘Additional capacity for night shelters and extra staff to help get more people into accommodation are among the actions being taken to tackle rough sleeping this winter. Recommendations to tackle the issue were made by the Scottish Government’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group in November, and immediately accepted by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.’
The money will be used for these:
- An increase to the Bethany Christian Trust night shelter capacity for the winter period in Edinburgh
- The Night Stop service, which already operates in Edinburgh, will start in Glasgow
- Flexible funding allocated to front-line teams to enable them to explore other options with people
- Outreach capacity expanded across the main cities, with additional staff to reach out to and support those sleeping rough
- Winter survival packs made available, as a last resort, to keep safe those people who do not take up other options
http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/19136/scottish-government-delivers-actions-tackle-rough-sleeping/
The SNP administration has already committed itself to end homelessness in Scotland and we have seen it fall here as it rises in England. See:
Could Scotland end homelessness?
Meanwhile from Windsor, we read:
‘Councillor Simon Dudley wrote to Thames Valley police this week, seeking action against what he describes as “aggressive begging and intimidation” and “bags and detritus” accumulating on the streets. He doesn’t want the VIPs attending Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s big day to have their experience spoilt by the sight of those at the sharp end of austerity.’
And, across England, we see:
‘Homelessness in England ‘a national crisis’, say MPs’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42421583
Once again, I ask the questions: ‘Are we a bit different and different enough to want to run things ourselves?’
Talking-up Scotland 
Yeah but , they’re not . . . Radical enough.
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You’d think Labour would be radical now after Kezia’s input of the last few years…:-)
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It’s the Scottish Government that’s not radical enough. . . . They might be . Looking after our homeless, running the best NHS in the UK, best trains, best social care, eradicating BSE in our beef herd (England and Wales haven’t) starting up a Scottish Investment Bank, Gender Equality in the Scottish Cabinet. . . . All these things and more . . . . They just aren’t Radical Enough. . . . . . . Well according to Richard Cranium Leonard that is!
Here’s a thought . . . Most of these achievements , I and others know about . . . Because of this blog!
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“OH, England is a pleasant place for them that ’s rich and high;
But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I”
These lines by Charles Kingsley from “The Last Buccaneer” came echoing down the years from “O” Grade English studies as I read the above. Kingsley was a contemporary of Dickens so I would assume that both men would feel a sense of failure were they to read the tory councilor’s words.
Scotland and England are more than ever two different countries with Scotland striving to build a future and England labouring to rebuild the past.
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Good memory Mac
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Don’t know if anybody noticed a wee item from the New Years (Dis)Honours List? (most decent folk will have been so busy applauding Lib Dem Jo Swinson’s Citizen of the Brutish Empire – was ever a designation ever so well merited? – that they might have missed this wee item. See below (from memory I found it on the beeb Jockland website):
Richard Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, becomes a “sir” following his appointment to the Order of the Thistle
The appointment of the Duke, one of Britain’s largest landowners, will be backdated to St Andrew’s Day 2017.
A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace confirmed the Duke’s appointment and said he will also act as the Lord High Commissioner – the Queen’s representative – to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2018.
Maybe, while his Chookieness is sitting as Lord High Commissioner at the General Assembly, he might spend a few moments pondering the ethics of his tax affairs, maybe? (probably too much to hope?)
Andy Wightman’s blog: http://www.andywightman.com/archives/4552 has some update info regarding Buccleuch Estates ownership tangle with new info from the Paradise Papers (see below):
Entity
Kirkhope Holdings Ltd.
• Connected to 2 addresses
• Connected to 10 officers
• Incorporated: 10-JUL-1987
• Registered in: Cayman Islands
• Linked countries: Cayman Islands
• Data from: Paradise Papers – Appleby
• Agent: Appleby
Dalkeith – Earl of
Shareholder – – Paradise Papers – Appleby
Scott – Lady Louisa
Shareholder – – Paradise Papers – Appleby
Scott – Lord Charles
Shareholder – – Paradise Papers – Appleby
The Buccleuch Estates Limited
Shareholder – – Paradise Papers – Appleby
Andy Wiseman’s blog identifies Kirkhope Holdings Ltd as “.. one strong candidate for the entity that holds the wealth of the Buccleuch family. It was incorporated in the Cayman Islands on 10 July 1987 and shares are owned by Buccleuch Estates Ltd. and members of the Buccleuch family.”
I seem to remember Her Madge and Charles were also identified in the Paradise Papers – so it’s good to see things being kept all nice and cosy still, isn’t it?
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