Hamilton MSP backs SNP in newspaper advertising vote

Feb 4 2010 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON South MSP Tom McCabe was the only Labour member of the Scottish Parliament last week to back the SNP in a vote on the newspaper industry.

Labour, Conservative and Green politicians all rejected a proposal by the Scottish Government to remove councils’ legal obligation to place public notices in newspapers.

Opposition MSPs had pointed out that a move to advertising jobs, planning applications and road closures online would be “deeply damaging” to the industry and detrimental to democracy, since Scotland had the lowest level of broadband uptake in the UK.

But the Government pointed to ‘online platform’ savings for councils in the region of £3m.

Following a vote, the SNP administration was defeated by a margin of 76 votes to 48. Mr McCabe also voted for an SNP amendment highlighting a consultation exercise on the issue which comes to an end next week.

Mr McCabe, a former Labour finance minister, told the Advertiser this week “exceptional circumstances” had prompted his support for the SNP government.

He explained: “Given the extremely stringent financial situation currently facing local government, and in the years to come, ways of saving money have to be found to protect vital services.

“Extreme pain will be felt. Every opportunity will have to be found for money to go to services and not other areas.”

Mr McCabe insisted that it was an occasion when “people and services come before politics”.

He added: “This is a pretty unusual thing for me to do. I have never done it in my 11 years in Parliament.”

Mr McCabe’s Hamilton North and Bellshill Labour colleague Michael McMahon opposed the SNP move, and during the debate in the Holyrood chamber, told fellow MSPs: “With Scotland facing a never-ending stream of bad economic news, it is right for us to recognise the decline in newspaper circulation across the country.

“Local newspapers have been taking a financial beating.

“Amid uncertainty over the economy, the role that local newspapers play is more important than ever, so we must do what we can to address that situation when we make decisions that directly affect them, such as when we consider a Scottish statutory instrument that will result in local government turning off the tap that allows local newspapers to benefit from the advertising revenue that accrues from public information notices.”