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Alex Salmond's Broken Promises
"We will scrap the unfair Council Tax and introduce a Local Income Tax set at 3p" (SNP Manifesto) "We will support a local income tax….to paraphrase somebody from a few years ago: you turn if you want to; this administration is not for turning."
(First Minister's Questions June 21, 2007) Alex Salmond
"If nominated, I'll decline. If drafted, I'll defer. And if elected I'll resign." (July 2004)
He stood for the leadership.
On Westminster… "I'm not in the business of picking fights with Westminster." (Scotsman, November 23rd, 2007) He has consistently picked fights with Westminster. On being an MP… "I consistently rank in the top ten hardest working Scottish MPs." (Register of interests) According to Theyworkforyou.com Alex Salmond has spoken in just one debate in the past year On quangos… "It is our intention, in the course of this Parliament, to reduce the number of quangos and government agencies in Scotland by a quarter. (SNP Conference, October 2007) By November 2007 the SNP had created 24 new quangos. In the Chamber On the Interfaith Council… "I am glad to inform Tavish Scott that the Inter Faith Council will not be closed, because the matter has been resolved." (First Minister's Question's, January 8, 2009) The matter had not been resolved. Fergus Ewing's meeting with the Interfaith Council had not yet taken place. On IMF projections… "It is dangerous for Iain Gray not to acknowledge the extent of the recession that is being forecast across the western world, which will affect everybody in the chamber. The International Monetary Fund projects that the UK economy will this year go into recession by almost 1 per cent." (First Minister's Questions, October 9th, 2008) The IMF actually said that the UK will see growth at 1% in 2008 and will shrink by 0.1% in 2009. On nursery teachers… "Margaret Smith should welcome the fact that the real figures for teachers—who are delivering the enhanced hours—are, under this Government, substantially increasing." (First Minister's Questions, September 25, 2008) The number of nursery teachers had in fact fallen. This answer is the subject of a complaint from Ken Macintosh to the Standards Committee. On reducing class sizes for Primary 1 – 3… (The First Minister promised in his manifesto that he would reduce to 18 class sizes for primaries 1 to 3… Can he confirm that his promise will be delivered in the lifetime of this parliamentary session?) "Yes I can, and that is why we have made early announcements to that effect." (Statement on the Scottish Government's Programme, September 5, 2007) Despite Alex Salmond's clear and specific response, little progress has been made on reducing class sizes to 18 for younger children. On the Mumbai terror attacks "Let me say a word about the atrocity in Mumbai, which we all obviously unite to condemn… Officials have been in contact with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office this morning, and there will be ministerial contact this afternoon." No ministerial contact had been agreed and none took place. SNP Manifesto On student debt… "We will write off the student debt of all Scottish and Scottish-domiciled graduates within 100 days." In John Swinney's first budget he announced that he would not allocate funds to service student debt. On first time buyers… "Introducing a first time buyers' grant of £2000 and the creation of a Scottish Housing Support Fund, to provide loans to first time buyers on a shared equity basis" Nicola Sturgeon announced that first time buyers will not receive £2,000 grants On new schools… "We will match the current school building programme brick for brick, and offer an alternative funding mechanism through the Scottish Futures Trust." The Scottish Futures Trust has so far failed to commission a single new school. On 1,000 more police… "The Justice Department will make a report to parliament setting out plans to employ 1,000 additional community police officers." Kenny MacAskill downgraded this pledge to a commitment to "free up" 1,000 police officers to be in our communities. Even this has not been delivered. On free swimming… "Children will be given free, year-round access to council swimming pools." The only two councils to deliver this pledge are Labour-run Glasgow and Inverclyde. |
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