This Programme of Government is timid. Lots of tweaking. Lots of responding to recent bad headlines. A few recycled promises (can anyone keep track of the culture funding u-turns?). But no big plan, no energy, let’s just keep managing the decline.

EXC: John Swinney dumps promise for universal free school meals for every primary pupil. dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/… dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/…

This tweet is quite something given that minutes after asking her question, John Swinney dumped the SNP’s promise to provide universal free meals for every primary school child.

This is a reduction of £200 million on the previous budget before the cuts made in the last two years or so. Not good news

This week, the SNP claimed on Facebook that the Scottish child payment had already lifted more than 100,000 kids out of poverty. Ferret Fact Service looked at this claim and found it False❌ Find out more: bit.ly/47deqnH

Child poverty levels remain around the same as they were in 2007 when the SNP came into power. 17 years and they have not shifted the dial on their top priority. The SNP needs to tell its politicians to stop repeating their false claim about the Scottish child payment.

From a personal viewpoint 100% support this policy. All the evidence points to social media and smart phones impacting negatively on children’s mental health (and attention spans), but it is difficult for parents to say no to a smart phone when their child’s peers all have one.

All higher in Scotland than pre-pandemic: food insecurity, homelessness, fuel poverty, proportion of young people not in work, education or training and more people in relative poverty. This report flags up the lack of evidence that Scot Gov policy is making any improvements.

This report flags up that despite child poverty being a Scottish Government priority, it has yet to present a comprehensive plan to meet its statutory target of reducing child poverty to 10% by 2030/31 and is “a long way” from meeting that target.

Want to help shape Scottish Labour’s policy agenda?The Scottish Policy Forum’s 2024 consultation paper is now out and we want to hear from you, whether you are a party member or third sector org or simply someone with ideas about how to improve Scotland. scottishlabour.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

Want to feed into Scottish Labour's policy process? The Scottish Policy Forum's first stage consultation document is on our website and is looking for your input whether you are a party member or part of the wider public: scottishlabour.org.uk/scottish-polic… The deadline for responses is

With Scottish Labour, every child will be able to learn to swim. thescottishsun.co.uk/news/14348731/…

Anas Sarwar: I will ban mobile phones in school classrooms as Labour First Minister, via Alistair Grant scotsman.com/news/politics/…

A Scottish Labour government will ban mobile phones in the classroom - so that every child has the opportunity to thrive at school. #ScotLab25

Scrapping peak fares on ScotRail led to 10 million more journeys. “The 10.6 million extra journeys during that year shows that removing peak rail fares works in the long term.” thetimes.com/uk/scotland/ar…

Given the state of Scotland’s education system - it’s surely not too much to ask Jenny Gilruth to do her job and turn up in Parliament for education questions. Scotland’s children should be her priority, not her party’s interests. thescottishsun.co.uk/news/14708533/…

Scot Lab's Neil Bibby MSP raising a Point of Order in Holyrood about the absence of Ed Sec Jenny Gilruth last Thursday at education questions - says that no justifiable reason has been given for "skipping", and alleges there may have been "party interests put above parliament",

SNP minister blasted for 'evasive excuses' days after 'dodging' Holyrood questions thescottishsun.co.uk/news/14728833/…

Here's the Education Secretary, the same afternoon she failed to show up to parliament's education portfolio questions (the first session for 5 weeks). Would be interesting to hear why this was more important than addressing issues like violence in schools thescottishsun.co.uk/news/14728833/…

31 out of 32 local authorities in Scotland have been allocated less cash for social housing this year compared to 2022. This is *despite* the SNP Government reversing the £196m cut to the affordable housing budget.