| "What
are the Tories thinking? Use your vote to stop them"
This is the message to be proclaimed from many billboards
across the UK during the General Election Campaign.
Once again UNISON will be using its General Political Fund
(GPF) to campaign to defend public services and take action
against racism.
As a UK General Election, of course many of the issues that
will be raised by UNISON members down South are in Scotland
devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
However the government of the UK is important for UNISON
members in Scotland as well - not least because it sets the
total amount of money to be spent on public services across
the UK.
Billboards urging people to use their vote to stop the Tories
are planned and, although we won't be able to comprehensively
cover Scotland, we want to get to as many targets as possible.
Dave Watson, UNISON's Head of Policy in Scotland said. "Whilst
the main policy thrust for this years campaign is coming from
our UK colleagues, there are still many issues of concern
to UNISON members in Scotland. Not least the consequences
of the Tories spending £35bn less on public services. "
As we go to press we are also hearing about further BNP attempts
to use this election to peddle their racism in Scotland and
we want to target them too.
"The financial restrictions of the Political Parties, Elections
and Referenda Act, now means a limit on campaign spending
by a third party (ie. a union like UNISON), and the union
is currently attempting to balance the amounts spent on billboards
with the other demands of the campaign."
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Scotland's
public service union
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