Record View: Labour must keep to their welfare roots after Swinney's winter fuel pledge
Labour must keep to welfare roots
John Swinney's announcement on winter fuel payments that no Scottish pensioner will be worse off than their English counterparts is good news.
Without any changes, we would have been in the perverse situation of older people on low incomes getting less than if they lived south of the border.
By effectively replicating the UK-wide approach, Swinney has delivered a better deal all round.
But we should be clear that the uncertainty around winter fuel payments is the fault of the UK Government.
It was Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to strip around ten million pensioners of their £200 to £300 sum that created chaos.
Her cuts led to the SNP Government putting together a slightly more generous scheme which would have come into force this year.
Reeves' inevitable u-turn, which led to full restoration for pensioners on incomes up to £35,000, has now been matched by the SNP Government.
The lesson to learn from this debacle is government policy must be properly thought through, not made up on the hoof.
Winter fuel payment cuts damaged the reputation of the Labour Government so much that Reeves was forced into a u-turn.
It now looks like we are headed for a policy solution, on both sides of the border, that meets the fairness test.
Most pensioners will receive help to heat their homes this winter, with the SNP Government still to reveal the exact details of their scheme.
A wider point must also be made about the priorities of Whitehall.
Labour should be dismantling the Tory policies on welfare, not tearing down Gordon Brown's legacy.
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End waste chaos
It is welcome that Scotland is banning 'black bag' waste from going to landfill.
Non-recyclable rubbish breaks down to produce methane - a greenhouse gas which is very harmful for the environment.
Using energy-from-waste incinerators rather than burying the waste in the ground is the right move, alongside increasing recycling rates.
But there are not enough incinerators in Scotland - meaning that up to 100 truckloads will be moved to England each day.
The rubbish needing to be driven hundreds of miles in lorries shows that the Scottish Government has failed to prepare for the ban coming into place.
And this is despite the ban being delayed from 2021.
For so many lorries to be travelling hundreds of miles each day to transport the rubbish will also be doing damage to the environment.
This reduces the positive impact of using incinerators.
The Scottish Government must sort this out, and quickly.
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