EAST END MSP TAKES FACEBOOK FEEDBACK TO HOLYROOD

09 Mar 2012

Glasgow Shettleston MSP, John Mason, tonight took part in a Scottish Parliament Members’ debate on the living wage. Prior to the debate, the SNP MSP invited contacts on the social networking site, Facebook, to share their views about the living wage, which helped form part of Mr Mason’s speech during the debate.

Commenting, the SNP’s John Mason MSP said:

“Tonight was an opportunity for me to try something new and it’s definitely something that I’ll consider again.

“I am delighted that there is a lot of focus on the living wage at the moment, with at least two recent parliamentary debates and a motion at the forthcoming SNP conference in Glasgow this weekend. As politicians, we’ve had a fair bit of time to make our point in Parliament in recent weeks, so I thought using Facebook would be a good opportunity to open up the debate a bit.

“Paying a living wage and tackling poverty through fair pay is a subject very close to my heart. One of the main issues I am keen to pursue during my time in Parliament is the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. In researching for tonight’s speech, I found out that it is very possible for the Chief Executive of Tesco to earn up to £6.5 million per annum – some 750 times more than an employee at the bottom of the company. That’s just pure greed as far as I’m concerned and there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.

“I am grateful to all my facebook contacts and constituents who continue to share their views on my facebook page – we might not always 100% agree on everything all the time but it’s good to engage in the debate and that’s precisely what it’s there for.”