🚨 NEW: The Government has announced Avanti West Coast will be nationalised from 7 March 2027

Scotland needs a politics of hope again - rooted in empathy, community and compassion. That’s what Scottish Labour will offer.

Picked up lots of comments from terminally online but chronically ill informed Scottish nationalists today. Folk convinced they’re socialists but intent on defending Glasgow City Council’s hire and refire scheme. I wrote more about this tendency here. bellacaledonia.org.uk/2022/0…

I wonder what the SNP's "trade union group" makes of Glasgow City Council's threat to sack 23,000 workers. I'm sure they'll be making a statement condemning it shortly.

SNP and Green Councillors were warned about this situation but carried on regardless. What a mess.

New Bradwell (Milton Keynes) Council By-Election Result: 🌹 LAB: 54.2% (+19.7) ➡️ RFM: 23.4% (-3.1) 🌳 CON: 8.5% (-2.6) 🌍 GRN: 9.3% (-12.5) 🔶 LDM: 4.6% (-1.5) Labour HOLD. Changes w/ 2026.

Scotland's largest authority, Glasgow City Council, has announced plans to fire and rehire more than 20,000 staff after union talks break down. Scotland correspondent @ConnorGillies explains the story from the city, and analyses the move trib.al/bpKFIqQ 📺 Sky 501

Why is a member of council staff being sent out to defend political decisions? Where is the Council's SNP leadership?

Where's Ricky Bell?

It beggars belief that the SNP council is threatening to railroad through fire and rehire before it is made illegal in this country by the UK Labour government. It may not break the letter of the law but it certainly breaks the spirit of it. It’s a despicable way to treat working people. It’s straight out the Tory playbook. All parties need to get round the table and hammer out a deal,and working people should never be threatened like this again. news.stv.tv/west-central/gla…

Glasgow City Council is to sack every non-teaching member of staff, between 23,000 and 25,000 people, and rehire them on new contracts from January 1 after equal pay talks collapsed. Dismissal letters go out next week. heraldscotland.com/news/2657…

23,000 council workers now face fire and rehire. Labour warned this could happen. We voted to rule it out and called for ACAS to help reach an agreement. The SNP and Greens voted to press ahead. They must take responsibility, rule out dismissal and get back round the table.

Citizens will continue to die so long as this shameful, irresponsible nonsense is the response. I'd hope there would be some in the SNP who will publicly condemn this disgraceful MSP.

Just today in Scotland: 📈 Highest child death rate in the UK 📈11% increase in drug deaths Yet the SNP choose to spend more of the Scottish Parliament’s time debating independence. Distracted and out of touch.

It was a real privilege to join the team at @1stClassCU on the Money Made Human Podcast today. They do fantastic work to support ordinary people with their finances, but particularly postal workers like myself. I hope my ramblings make for easy listening!

It’s estimated that one in five women in the UK will experience a miscarriage in their lifetime. But if you lose a pregnancy before 24 weeks, there is currently no legal right to bereavement leave. I don’t think that’s right. Losing a pregnancy can be devastating. You and your partner shouldn’t have to worry about going straight back to work. So we’re changing the law. From April, women and their partners will be entitled to two weeks off after any pregnancy loss. And we’re making wider changes, with new rights to time off when you lose someone you love. When you’re grieving, you deserve the time and space to do that.

Scottish Labour @michaeljmarra: "I know many people who voted Yes in 2014 - I count them among my friends and family. "I think of the people I know who support independence and I feel sympathy for how comprehensively this SNP government has failed them for the last 12 years."

I wish Alison could have joined me last night with her newly found 20:20 vision when I was operating in the QEUH till 4am, to see how this "new" hospital resembles a bomb site. Every scaffolding stud should be an epitaph to SNP incompetence and addiction to waste.

Walkley (Sheffield) Council By-Election Result: 🌹 LAB: 53.4% (+14.4) 🌍 GRN: 28.8% (-11.2) ➡️ RFM: 12.5% (-1.6) 🔶 LDM: 2.6% (-0.2) 🌳 CON: 1.4% (-0.7) 🧑‍🔧 TUSC: 1.3% (+0.3) No Ind (-1.0) as previous. Labour GAIN from Green. Changes w/ 2026.

Robert Jenrick has such a short memory that he’s forgotten he was literally a Treasury minister when Frances O’Grady was appointed to the same role in 2019. gov.uk/government/news/chanc…