Jenny Marra MSP - Hate Crime Figures Begin to Shine a Light on True Scale of Problem

18 May 2012

Commenting on hate crime statistics published today, which show that the number of charges reported for all categories of hate crime increased in 2011-12, Scottish Labour’s Shadow Community Safety Minister, Jenny Marra MSP, said:

“The fact that hate crime has increased across the board – will in part be due to improved reporting – but I fear these statistics, for the first time, begin to shine a light on the true scale of hate crime in Scotland.

"We must continue to send the strongest possible message that hate crime of any sort is never acceptable and will always be dealt with the full force of the law.

"A significant amount of work is required to tackle the root causes of these crimes.

“Education is at the heart of tackling negative attitudes, and the earlier the intervention the better.

“That is why we must ensure schools have positive policies in place for improving indiscipline and tackling bullying – particularly for areas of bullying that are worrying on the rise, such as cyber bullying.

"It is vital too that we ensure that those convicted of hate crimes are challenged on their behaviour and intolerance is challenged whatever form it takes."

Jenny Marra MSP welcomes Ed Miliband to the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee

2 March 2012

Conference,

Welcome to Dundee.

It is a great pleasure to have conference back here in Scotland’s sunniest City.

Scottish Labour Conference in the Caird Hall holds special memories for me, as it was in this hall, 19 years ago as a local schoolgirl that I blagged my way past the stewards up to that balcony to see John Smith stand here and address conference.

Later that day, I joined the Labour Party.

Of course it wasn’t just the oratory that made me join up. Many of you will remember 1993.

Soaring unemployment, a generation of young Scots being lost to a future without hope, a government speaking for the millionaires instead of the millions.

Britain isolated in Europe?

As right-wingers hold the government in their sway?

The crazy plan to privatise the NHS? I know, you know, Britain must surely now know, The Tories NEVER change.

But this time, they’ve got their Tartan Tory helpers in Edinburgh.

What would George Osborne want more than a race to the bottom in corporation tax?

It is the SNP that is desperate to give him it.

Don’t take my word for it.

Ask ‘Sir’ Rupert Murdoch.

‘Scotland should go and compete’

We know what he means by that and what he and Alex are cooking up over a Tunnocks Tea Cake or twelve in Bute House.

So contrast that with our man.

Who led the fight in Parliament that has begun to break the Murdoch’s stranglehold on British politics?

Who made the fattest of fat cat bankers pay back the bonuses?

Who week by week is breaking Cameron’s plan to privatise the NHS?

Ed Miliband is not just our leader, he holds the torch that John Smith lit for me 19 years ago.

He walks in those footsteps, he cherishes those ideals. His passion and commitment to our historic mission are as deep, strong and enduring as the River Tay.

Conference, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to Dundee, Ed Miliband.

Jenny Marra urges MacAskill to Drop "Regressive " Prison Plans

Jenny Marra urges MacAskill to Drop "Regressive " Prison Plans
2 February 2012
Speaking ahead of a Scottish Parliament debate on the role of prison visiting committees, Scottish Labour’s Shadow Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Jenny Marra MSP, said:
"What Kenny MacAskill is proposing does not perform the function of visiting committees – he is not replacing like with like.
An advocacy service won by a company bidding for a government contract will never be able to perform the impartial scrutiny carried out by volunteers on the visiting committee who offer their time to do spot checks on prison conditions.
"Kenny MacAskill’s prime motivation here seems to be to reduce the number of public bodies. This is not a good enough reason to take away independent prison monitoring that has been seen as essential in law since Victorian times.
"This is a regressive proposal.
"With 59 of the 60 organisations consulted, and the Howard League for Penal Reform, agreeing that the SNP government is taking the wrong approach, I hope the SNP government will listen to the powerful case made against these proposals and drop these plans.

Jenny Marra : Appointment as Shadow Minister

Jenny Marra MSP
Appointment as Shadow Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs.
20 December 2011

Jenny Marra MSP has expressed delight at her appointment as Shadow Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs.
Commenting on the news that Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has invited Ms Marra to join her front bench, she said,
"I am extremely honoured to accept this position.
"I look forward to working with colleagues and stakeholders to help deliver a justice system that meets the challenges of 21st century Scotland."
Johann Lamont, Scottish Labour Leader, said,"I want my frontbench team to be inclusive, mixing experience with new talent.
"Scottish Labour has an excellent set of newly-elected MSPs and I am very pleased to have appointed eight of them to frontbench roles.
"Together over the coming months we will be working hard to change Scottish Labour so that we don't just hold the SNP to account, but begin to set out our ambitions for all the people of Scotland.
"I will be making further shadow cabinet appointments from outside the world of politics in the new year."

Jenny Marra MSP welcomes SFA Football Academy at St John's

Jenny Marra MSP welcomes SFA Football Academy at St John's
15 December 2011
Jenny Marra has today welcomed the news that St John’s High School is to be earmarked as one of the SFA’s seven ‘performance schools’ to be created across Scotland.
The existing programme, which gives up and coming youngsters the opportunity to access top level coaching before and after the school day, is to be taken over by the SFA and will form an integral part of the Association’s plan to develop talent of the future.
Jenny has spearheaded the campaign to bring the proposed National Football Academy to her home city and this recent announcement can only strengthen Dundee’s case as being a centre of footballing excellence.
Jenny said,
"I think this is great news.
"There is a lot of good work in sport and football that is already going on at St John’s.
"I visited the school a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed.
"It will also help our campaign to bring the National Football Academy to Dundee.
"It would be an elite performance centre for people from across the country.
"Having another performance academy adds to the strength of the bid the council has agreed to put forward.
"I will continue to campaign on this issue and hopefully we can see the future of football in Dundee."

Jenny Marra MSP launches Christmas Appeal for Dundee Women’s Aid

Jenny Marra MSP launches Christmas Appeal for Dundee Women’s Aid
13 December 2011
Jenny Marra MSP is today launching a Christmas appeal in support of Dundee Women’s Aid.
The appeal is to gather essential items for women and children staying with Women’s Aid over the festive period.
With Christmas being a difficult time for some families, Dundee Women’s Aid will see an increase in women seeking refuge from domestic abuse.
Women and their children may only arrive at a refuge with the clothes they are wearing so there is a real need to provide for basic items.
Members of the public can support by donating basic essentials including toiletries, bath towels, children’s toys and supermarket vouchers.
Items can be handed in to Jenny Marra’s office at 15/16 Springfield, Dundee, DD1 4JE ( office hours Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm) or phone 01382 202584 for collection.
Jenny Marra MSP said,
"Women’s Aid provides essential support and refuge for women in Dundee but they need supplies and donations, especially at Christmas.
"I know this is a busy time of year for everyone but I would be very grateful if people could respond to this appeal with any toys, children’s clothes or toiletries that they can spare."

Jenny Marra supports Dundee students at Education Rally

Jenny Marra Supports Dundee Students at Education Rally

6 December 2011
Jenny Marra MSP showed her support for Dundee students at a rally held before the public meeting on post-16 education in Tayside attended by Cabinet Secretary for Education Mike Russell.
The students gathered to present their response to the post-16 consultation paper that proposes increased ministerial powers over the governance of further education institutions. Earlier this year the paper sparked controversy in its proposal to give ministers the power to merge institutions.
Speaking before the rally Ms Marra said:
"I am delighted to be here to support the students in presenting their response to the post-16 legislative paper. Both Abertay and Dundee university student associations have been clear in their opposition to any merger proposals, as well as the Government’s cuts to Colleges. It is important their voice is heard throughout this consultation as it is their future at stake."
William Mohieddeen, president of Abertay Students Union added:
"The University of Abertay Students' Association thanks all supporters of the Hands Off Abertay campaign and those that are backing the Tayside students' response in 'All Taygether Now'.
"Particularly we would like to thank Jenny Marra MSP for addressing the students attending the rally at Dundee Union.
"The campaigning has been fully about projecting the student voice to the highest level in Government and we recognise those such as Ms Marra who are keen to interact with students and acknowledge the position they have in partnership in their education.
"This has been a significant piece of student activism and we hope to see significant interaction from the education secretary before imposing any further changes to the higher education sector."

Jenny Marra MSP : Youth Unemployment

Jenny Marra MSP

Youth Unemployment

Speech in the Scottish Parliament

1 December 2011

I am angry.

I am angry after yesterday's strikes.

I am angry at John Mason?s suggestion that young people in our country do not want to work, and I invite him to come up to Dundee and speak to some of the young people to whom I speak every week, who are desperate to work—the young men who have left school and are desperate to get into the construction industry but cannot because there are no jobs available for them.

I am angry that, since two weeks ago, when the unemployment figures came out, cybernats continually tweet me with their answer to the unemployment figures, which is that young people in this country do not want to work.

That seems to be the message continually coming from members on the Scottish National Party benches and from those who tweet and put things on Facebook in their names.

Those of us who marched and were on the picket lines yesterday recommitted ourselves to fight the scourge of youth unemployment in this country, because yesterday was not just about pensions, although their protection is exceedingly important.

Yesterday was, in essence, about work: people?s right to work, to expect to work, to aspire to work, to enjoy success at work, to be properly paid for work, to be challenged, to pay taxes and to build a financial and satisfying legacy for old age.

The crisis in youth unemployment in Scotland has grown to breaking point.

As the economic downturn has unfolded it has become increasingly clear that Scotland?s youth are being hardest hit in the fight to find work, training or access to further education.

I want to talk a bit about the structural problems of the economic downturn that are affecting the choices of the young people in those of our communities that are most decimated by unemployment, such as an increasingly competitive job market that keeps them shut out, and a further education system that will see fewer opportunities for them after the SNP has made its debilitating cuts to colleges.

In a recent study, Professor David Bell of the University of Stirling talks of a "trade-down" generation, with today?s graduates, who are faced with an increasingly difficult job market, taking on jobs in retail or services at minimum wage—jobs that would otherwise usually have been done by those who had not been to university.

The burden of the economic squeeze has landed on the shoulders of young people who are on the first rung on the employability ladder.

They have left school early without many qualifications or any work experience and have entered a job market where they are now competing for jobs against more highly qualified candidates—and they cannot compete.

Little wonder, then, that unemployment among young people in Scotland is rising at a rate that is double that for 25 to 49-year-olds.

Traditionally, for those who have left school early and want to boost their employability, there has always been the option of studying or training at college, but demand for college places has soared and the Educational Institute of Scotland reports that college courses are increasingly difficult to find.

Coupled with budget cuts of 40 per cent in real terms, which I have put to the cabinet secretary before, and college mergers—with a predicted loss of up to 2,000 places at Angus College alone—the college option is becoming harder and harder for young people to realise, leaving them with little option but to return to school.

The rate of pupils staying on at school past the age of 16 has jumped from a relatively stable rate of between 77 and 79 per cent between 2000 and 2008 to 83 per cent last year—the highest figure on record.

Immense pressure is being put on teachers to provide courses for such large numbers.

The First Minister: Will Jenny Marra acknowledge that among the many recommendations of the Smith group is one that says that staying on at school is a good thing? Might that have something to do with this Government?s determination to maintain educational maintenance allowance, which has been removed elsewhere in these islands?

Jenny Marra: There are many who find the cuts to educational maintenance allowance quite debilitating.

It is good that some people are staying on at school, but it is not acceptable that others are not.

I will read to the chamber something that was posted on Facebook yesterday by the brother of Angus MacLeod.

Labour members feel very strongly that this sums up the state of youth unemployment in our country.

It is about a boy called Liam Aitchison, who died earlier this week.

John MacLeod met him in late September as they waited for a ferry. John was returning from the Uist communion and ended up giving Liam a lift to Stornoway.

He said that Liam was,

"engaging, smart, funny, had quite a back-story, a strong handshake and was eerily old for his years ... he would hail me on the streets of town (usually to tap me for fags)."

Two weeks ago, they met up for lunch.

John took reams of notes to get a CV together for him.

He had a looming date before the sheriff for "some juvenile mischief" and they felt that finding Liam "a situation" or a job might help.

John wrote that Liam

"had ... lost weight in these weeks; looked rather flat and tired. Picked at his food; inexplicably declined pudding. 'I'll Facebook you,' he said; but he didn't".

Liam never touched Facebook or his mobile again.

John wrote: "Liam went missing a few days later. His body was found in a derelict shack by the edge of Stornoway yesterday ... a lad disadvantaged in many ways ... in life ... but who had worked hard in the Pollachar Inn and on four fishing boats, had earned six Standard Grades, was a drummer in Uist pipe band ... and who could play a bewildering range of instruments"—

John said that Liam "completed the John Muir award in 2009 and was a keen cook".

He was not "a ned, a chav, a loser or a statistic".

John described him as "a young man worth meeting".

Liam was a young man who needed a job and who will never now realise that potential.

Liam was 16 years old.

Jenny Marra show support for Dundee pensioner's Fuel Poverty campaign

Jenny Marra MSP shows support for Dundee pensioner’s fuel poverty campaign
23 November 2011
Jenny Marra MSP has today pledged her support to the Dundee Pensioners Forum following a protest they staged at the Wellgate centre in Dundee about concerns for fuel poverty.
Ms Marra has been active in championing fuel poverty matters in the Scottish Parliament, having just recently brought the matter to a debate.
In pledging her support Ms Marra stated:
"It is so often the case that pensioners are the hardest hit when it on comes to fuel poverty.
"I fully support the Dundee Pensioner’s Forum in their fight to be heard.
"We cannot leave the most vulnerable in society to choose between heating and eating this winter.
"I share their concern that the Scottish Government has cut funding to the Energy Assistance Package form £71million last year to just £48 million this year.
"This budget cut will mean less money available for progressive schemes such as home insulation, which would help vulnerable groups such as the Dundee pensioners to cut their bills and keep their homes warmer for longer.
"It is an issue I have raised in the Parliament previously, and I will do so again today in a debate on Climate Change.
"I also have scheduled a meeting with fuel poverty charity SCARF to discuss how we can articulate the concerns of groups like the Dundee Pensioner’s Forum to the Scottish Government.
"I hope to meet with the Pensioners Forum shortly."

Jenny Marra MSP : Scottish Labour Welcomes End to Dundee-Abertay Merger Plan

Jenny Marra MSP
Scottish Labour Welcomes End of Dundee-Abertay Merger Plan
17 November 2011
Commenting on the news that Dundee and Abertay Universities have today ruled out merging together, Jenny Marra Scottish Labour MSP for North East Scotland, who led the campaign against the merger proposals said:
"Students and staff at both institutions will be delighted that the merger proposals have been scrapped and both universities will retain their independence.
"This proposed shotgun marriage dreamt up by Mike Russell, the Cabinet Secretary for Education clearly demonstrated how out of touch he is with local feeling in Dundee on this matter.
"At the public meeting I addressed it was clear that the only people in favour of this half baked plan were the SNP.
"Mike Russell talks up the autonomy of academic institutions when it comes to making cuts, but he is happy to make direct intervention in their governance and issues like merger which should be driven by academic imperatives."
Iain Gray MSP, Scottish Labour leader commented : " Everyone knew that Mike Russell was trying to force Abertay to merge with Dundee University.
"Scottish Labour initially raised this matter at First Minister’s Questions and forced Alex Salmond to give the assurance that it would not be forced through but would be up to the two universities to decide.
"They have now held talks and agreed that they do not want to merge.
"Mike Russell must now complete his U turn by indicating that he accepts this decision and will no longer be insisting on merger plans that no-one supports."