Poverty

Scotland has many areas still mired in poverty. Jack McConnell - Labour's First Minister - is fond of the phrase "Scotland's Secret Shame". But whose "Secret Shame" does he think the following statements belong to? And does he recognise that these lie at the door of the Scottish Labour and their Liberal Democrat allies in the Scottish Executive?

• One in four children in Scotland still lives in poverty. "Most poor people don't live in poor areas and a significant number of folk living in low-income households are actually in work" (Peter Kelly: Director of Scottish Campaigning charity Poverty Alliance.
• A single parent with two children has to manage on £186.00/week.
• Two-parent families have to get by on less than £268.00/week.

Does Jack McConnell and his Labour/Liberal Democrat colleagues care about this "secret shame?"

Christian Peoples Alliance has policies for tackling Scotland's "secret shame" with a rate of £8.00/hour for the minimum wage (the Low Pay Unit's recommendation) to centrally funded, long-term resources for locally managed projects which are community run. We back the approach of Bob Holman, neighbourhood and project worker in Easterhouse. (See more in our policies tackling poverty.)

• Childless adults have got poorer - The number of people in this group has gone up form 15% - 18%
• Life expectancy at birth for males is less than 60 years in many areas of Scotland.
• Many areas of Scotland particularly council wards in Glasgow and North Lanarkshire have poverty resembling parts of the developing world. (See CPA policy document)

Scotland's "Secret Shame" is no longer "secret" and CPA (Scotland) will work to eliminate this shame and expose how the Labour Party has betrayed deprived communities in Scotland for decades.