Ministerial platitudes on show at anti-poverty summit

Speaking after he attended the anti-poverty summit convened by the First Minister in Edinburgh this morning, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"In my time as a youth worker, I saw the stubborn toll that poverty takes on Scottish households.

"I attended today's summit in good faith as this is an agenda I desperately want the government to succeed on.

"However I did sense a degree of cynicism among stakeholders that this was another talking shop and the platitudes we were offered by ministers were all too familiar.

"That said I will never pass up the opportunity to lay out ideas on how we tackle the immediate effects of poverty now and prevent people falling into it in the years to come.

"The Scottish Government must make publicly funded childcare far more flexible for those out side of the labour market, identify and get help to all those who have suffered adverse childhood experiences, and kickstart a national insulation programme to make sure everyone has a warm and secure home to call their own.

"My party is bursting with fresh ideas for how to tackle poverty but meetings like this must not be where good ideas go to die. It's time for the First Minister to deliver."