Tackling Inequality

Ed Miliband has been speechifying over the weekend and burnishing his credentials as a champion of equality which is not only about duty, fairness and morality but also about social efficiency, according to the Labour leader.

Now I agree with those sentiments although I would say they've been most noticeable by their absence over the past 10 years as far as Labour in Scotland is concerned.

Because the fight for equal pay in Scotland has been fiercest in the big Labour controlled councils like Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire and during last decade I've yet to come across a Labour MP or MSP who took up the cudgels on behalf of their local constituents.

In practice they have all been 'big fearties', full of Braveheart talk about their commitment to equality issues but too scared to put their heads able the parapet and criticise their own local Labour-run councils.

Likewise with every Labour leader from the days of Jack McConnell who was Scotland's First Minister until 2007 when he was replaced by Wendy Alexander, who was followed by Iain Gray who, in turn, was succeeded by Johann Lamont - yet not one of them stood up for the interests of low paid council workers fighting for equal pay.

So I take what Ed Miliband has to say words with a giant pinch of salt although I will happily eat my if he comes up to Motherwell and lays into North Lanarkshire Council for its appalling behaviour over equal pay.