Bedroom Tax - Making it Real

This morning I joined Pentlands Labour Party to spend a few hours at the Wester Hailes Shopping Centre getting signatures for a petition against the Bedroom Tax. I really was genuinely surprised to see people queueing to sign the petition and I spoke to dozens of folk who will actually be affected by this in just a couple of weeks time. It really did bring it home, seeing the worry this has caused to people who are already pretty poor. They feel they've been attacked and can't understand why. One grandmother told me she looks after her 3 grandkids at the weekend to allow her daughter to go to work. She'll now lose benefits based on the additional bedrooms that she uses for this. Gran is thinking of moving to a smaller house and her daughter will have to consider giving up work and being more reliant on benefits. Absolutely nuts ! A guy told me that as he and his partner are in low paid jobs they receive £1 a week in Housing benefit. Because they've got an extra bedroom they've received a letter advising that their benefits will be reduced to 86p ! The fact that exemptions to the Bedroom Tax were just announced this week proves to me that the ConDem Government are making it up on the hoof and surely more changes will follow.

Tomorrow I shall head for Hampden, more in hope that expectation, for the League Cup Final. I think that St Mirren are underrated as a football side and they certainly carry plenty of threat up front. However, Hearts won't be lacking motivation, fired up with the infectious enthusiasm of new boss Gary Locke. Looking forward to it. Determined to have a good day, come what may. Good luck Hearts.