OSBORNE'S "FANTASY ECONOMY" IS A FAKE
Responding to the UK budget speech, the Scottish Greens says the Chancellor's rosy depiction of the economy is not being felt on the ground, with low wages, insecure employment and welfare sanctions continuing to reinforce poverty and inequality in the UK.
The Greens are leading a debate in Holyrood today on in-work poverty, and are campaigning for a £10 minimum wage by 2020.
Patrick Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow, said:
"This is not a plan to make the UK a fairer or more sustainable society. Instead of an eye-watering £1.3 billion subsidy for fossil fuels, the Chancellor could have provided a gigantic boost to locally-owned clean energy or backed the return of our railways to public hands.
"This Coalition has delivered five years of hacking away at the public good and at the foundations of our welfare state. It's been a devastating and costly campaign by an elite in Westminster and the prospect of another round should terrify everyone who is fighting for social justice in this country."
Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian, said:
"The Westminster coalition try to paint a rosy picture but what they describe will seem to many like a fantasy economy, far removed from the reality of rising rents, insecure low paid work and the misery of welfare cuts. The Greens want to see a £10 minimum wage and the small rises announced today are completely inadequate in a world of extreme high pay at the top."