Politics: The start of the new year brings same old frustrations
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I long for the day when I am not dealing with the delays and incompetence from Westminster.
Dealing with the after-effects of the chaos we saw at the heart of the UK Government in 2022 did not magically disappear with the years changing.
Returning to work after the new year recess, my inbox is full of constituents worried about heating, eating and the growing inflation of prices across the country.
Another thing that has been brought to my attention are the delays on long promised Bills and projects promised by the UK Government, which has largely been caused by the disruption the Tory party put the country through while they tore one another to shreds throughout 2022.
Pertinent to the north-east, we have seen the Acorn project, a vital shovel-ready venture – that would bring hundreds of jobs to the Banffshire and Buchan Coast constituency – been consigned to the slow lane with no sign of progress.
A worrying delay for the local farming industry has been the continued delay in introducing post-Brexit border controls on meat products entering the UK.
Leaving the industry in the UK exposed to diseases such as African swine flu could devastate an industry already struggling with our post-Brexit reality.
The National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS) has been scathing in its condemnation of the current system in a recent blog post by Jamie Wyllie, chairman of NFUS Scotland’s pigs committee, calling for the UK Government to guarantee a robust, reliable system delivering proper border checks on food, with additional measures verifying the health and safety of meat products.
Jamie said: “Since the UK left the EU, Westminster has had wholly inadequate border controls in place for checking meat and other products entering our country.
"Amongst all the chaos of securing a ‘Brexit deal', the mechanics of how border controls would operate was lost, with no thought given to having the infrastructure and staff in place to manage controls when the split finally happened.
"A system has been promised, but the deadline for when the system would be available has been repeatedly pushed back by the UK Government.
"Announcements in July 2022 revealed a system would not be in place for January 2023, as required in legislation, instead the legislation was re-written to make room for this latest delay.
"The new legislative timeline requires an operational system to be in place by the end of January 2024, a significant delay from the January 2021 date.”
A three-year delay with no genuine guarantee on such an important issue is simply unacceptable. Think about how absurd this is, we have a Government that has allowed inadequate checks and balances on food imported into the country.
Governments have a duty of care. Keeping the public safe should be our number one goal, and if the UK Government can’t fulfil that primary duty, they should have the decency to stand aside.
I’ll be writing to the relevant UK Government minister asking them to take action and provide assurances for the industry so that we will see no further delays on this critical issue.
Going from recent experience, I just hope the minster can stay in the job long enough to orchestrate a response.
If in the meantime I can be of any assistance to you, please get in touch with me, Karen.Adam.MSP@parliament.scot
