Manifesto Motion Topics

At the Sitting, MSYPs will debate four Manifesto Motions. Depending on whether the membership decides to vote in favour of them, these could move on to the next stage of the Manifesto decision process. To find out more about how Manifesto Motions will fit into the big picture, click here. Below is some background info on the four very different issues that will be discussed at the June Sitting.

“The Trident nuclear missile system should not be replaced, and no part of the existing or new systems should be located in Scotland or in Scottish waters.”

Tom Sparks MSYP (Edinburgh Central)

The Trident system is the UK’s nuclear weapons system and consists of four submarines with nuclear missiles based at Faslane naval base on the river Clyde. The system is getting old and would need to be replaced in the next few years. Estimates for the cost of replacing it range from £15 billion to £100 billion.

There many who argue for and against the system’s replacement. Those opposed say it is outdated and Britain no longer needs a nuclear weapons system, which was designed during the nuclear arms race of the Cold War. Those in favour say that in a dangerous and uncertain world they provide a deterrent against attacking the UK. It’s a live issue in the Westminster election, with Labour and the Conservatives in favour of replacing trident and the SNP and Liberal Democrats against. You can find more info about the issue by clicking here.

“Young people need to be given appropriate support if someone close to them dies.”

Laura Gorman MSYP (Dundee West)

Laura says “this comes from the work I have been doing with Barnardo’s in relation to their 'Dead Right N.O.W.' report that looked at the impact that bereavement and trauma has on young people and how it makes young people feel and what young people feel needs to be done in order to help them.”

The ‘Dead Right N.O.W (No Opinions Wasted)’ report was the result of a consultation with young people from several local authorities in Scotland. It aimed to find out young people’s views on trauma, bereavement and loss and influence how services to help young people cope can be improved.

Some of its recommendations included a ‘Shining Star Service’ – a model of good practice of what bereavement services for young people should look like. You can download the Executive Summary of the report from the bottom of this page.

“Funding for youth projects and groups should be a priority for local authorities.”

Ryan Smart MSYP (Central Fife) & Jill Pringle (North East Fife)

In 2008, the Scottish Government came to an agreement with Scotland’s local authorities over funding and services. This was known as the ‘Concordat’ and one of the main parts of it was to give more flexibility to what services local authorities could spend money on (less ‘ring-fencing’), in return for working towards a number of statements (‘National Outcomes’).

As part of this, each local authority has to produce a ‘Single Outcome Agreement’ each year which sets out what they will do to work towards the National Outcomes. As funding to youth services is generally not ‘ring-fenced’ any more these Agreements can give a good idea of what local authorities’ priorities are how important youth services are to them.

For the last two years, the Children’s Voluntary Sector Policy Officers’ Network, which contains several of the SYP’s partner organisations, has looked at each of the Single Outcome Agreements to see how much they deliver for young people. They found that while “issues affecting children continue to receive considerable attention through the national outcomes…this coverage tends to be limited to specific areas. For example, children are most commonly discussed in relation to their protection, their education or their health…key themes such as families and parenting, children with disabilities, play (especially for older children) and children’s rights received little or no attention in the agreements. Meanwhile other arguably ‘hidden’ issues such as mental health, domestic abuse or learning disability continued to find it difficult to compete with bigger and more public concerns.”

You can read the Network’s report by clicking here.

“More needs to be done to make the internet a safer place for young people, including ‘panic buttons’ on sites that young people use and better age verification systems.”

Claire Ewing MSYP (Dunfermline West) & Anna Devine (Kirkcaldy)

There have been some incidents in recent years of young people being exploited or abused online. Sometimes these incidents have happened through websites that young people use because people are dishonest about who they are or have lied about their age. The UK Government’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) have developed a ‘panic button’ which can be placed on websites that young people use. Clicking on it takes users through to a page (CLICK HERE TO VIEW) that includes advice on what to do and how to report inappropriate behaviour. This can also be added to Internet Explorer. Click here for more about the panic button, or here to download it for Internet Explorer 8.

CEOP have recently been pushing to get Facebook to add the panic button, but have been unsuccessful, with Facebook claiming that their system for reporting abuse works just as well. Click here for more on Facebook’s system. The campaign has been supported by a number of police chiefs. You can read more about the story by clicking here.

The minimum age you can sign up for Facebook, YouTube and Bebo is 13 and for MySpace it is 14. There is no age restriction on signing up for Twitter. YouTube also blocks videos that have been flagged as unsuitable for minors to users under 18. However, none of these sites ask for proof that a user is the age that they say they are.