Marlyn and Labour North of Scotland MSP colleague, Richard Baker, signed the Poverty Pledge in the Scottish Parliament (link to photographs )
The Pledge is part of the Get Fair Scotland campaign and reads :
The Poverty Pledge
GET FAIR Scotland 2009
As the leaders of the political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament and other elected representatives in Scotland:
We hold that the current number of people in Scotland living in poverty, 950,000 or nearly 1 in 5 of the population, is wholly unacceptable.
We believe that the reduction of poverty must be a shared key objective of Governments in London and Edinburgh.
We recognise that the current economic crisis threatens to push more Scots into poverty and acknowledge that Government responses must include specific measures to protect those most at risk.
We endorse the aims of GET FAIR and believe that an increase in income adequacy will be an essential part of the package of measures necessary to achieve a major reduction in poverty.
The Poverty Pledge
GET FAIR Scotland 2009
As the leaders of the political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament and other elected representatives in Scotland:
We hold that the current number of people in Scotland living in poverty, 950,000 or nearly 1 in 5 of the population, is wholly unacceptable.
We believe that the reduction of poverty must be a shared key objective of Governments in London and Edinburgh.
We recognise that the current economic crisis threatens to push more Scots into poverty and acknowledge that Government responses must include specific measures to protect those most at risk.
We endorse the aims of GET FAIR and believe that an increase in income adequacy will be an essential part of the package of measures necessary to achieve a major reduction in poverty.
We undertake to use, or support the use of, all policy powers available to the Governments of Scotland and the UK to meet poverty reduction targets.
We reaffirm our commitment to end child poverty by 2020 and to end Fuel Poverty for all households by 2016.