Alex Salmond tells it how it is. Slainte Mhath!
So much for the Tory conference slogan “Together in the National Interest.” It seems Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland aren’t on board – today all three of the devolved first ministers (along with their deputies and finance minsters), agreed a joint declaration against the ConDem coalition’s approach to reducing the deficit.
Alex Salmond, Carwyn Jones and Peter Robinson all call for cuts to be introduced over a longer period of time and argue that the current hard-and-fast plan is “entirely the wrong approach for the economy”.
They go on to say: “The devolved administrations believe that the proposed approach to public spending reductions by the UK government runs the risk of delivering significant economic and social harm and urge the UK government to reconsider its proposals.”