The current situation faced by tenant farmers in Scotland could hardly be more serious. Continue reading
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Candidate’s 10 years as Labour councillor becomes LibDem service – just like that
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3rd May Judicial Review and election for Angus schools campaigner Ewan Smith
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Arbroath schools campaigner standing for Angus council
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Murdo Fraser: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’
Murdo Fraser, the Tory policy wonk reckoned by the Holyrood village – Continue reading
Alison Hay: Why I belong to my party
The emphasis is on why I belong to my party the Scottish Liberal Democrats. I have been a member of the party since the 80s.
It came about in a gradual way. Through the Community Council I became very friendly with the then Regional Councillor Carole MacIntyre who lived on Islay. Carole was very helpful and supportive.
She never pushed her political views but I was aware of her party affiliations and she showed by her commitment and dedication by helping the community demonstrating that she was genuinely a committed person and nice into the bargain.
When the chance to stand for the District Council came round she encouraged me to stand and I thought it only right that I should stand on a political ticket that way people would know what my views were likely to be on various topics. I also liked the way the party was and still is a broad church accepting varying views within it. So I stood as a Scottish Liberal Democrat and have never looked back.
When Carole told me she would not be standing for the final term of Strathclyde Region I had no hesitation in putting myself forward for selection, was elected and met Liberal Democrat Regional members who were incredibly supportive. I gained a wider perspective of political life.
Our party conferences are run on democratic lines and the party grassroots have a big input into party policy and what goes into the manifesto. I suppose I am a Scottish Liberal democrat because the party believes in decisions being taken as near to the people as practical, we also believe in a Federal Union of States, each taking our own decisions but working together on the big strategic issues such as the armed forces, the country’s defence. I believe there is strength in unity, but it must be a unity of mutual respect.
Turning to look at what my party can offer Argyll and Bute. Argyll and its many inhabited islands are unique and that very uniqueness can cause some very special challenges.
As a constituency we’re part mainland, with a plethora of populated islands of varying size.
Many of the party’s MSPs come from rural and island areas and there is a wealth of experience about rural issues amongst them so I think my party is well placed to understand the special challenges an area like Argyll and Bute can throw up. A case in point is the review of the Common Agricultural Policy with a Scottish Liberal Democrat leading. Less favoured area status and single farm payments are topics very important to Argyll and Bute farmers. I will work with my colleagues to make sure those farmers views are fed into the debate.
My Scottish Liberal Democrat party stands for supporting Small to Medium Enterprises which are the back bone of Argyll and Bute and we mean to do so by establishing a series of Regional Development Banks, whose boards will comprise local people from the community and business. There will be a special one for the Highlands and Islands area recognising the special challenges of our more remote and fragile communities and businesses.
Our manifesto, at my request, has in it the need for urgent action on the A82 and A83. It also mentions the re-trunking of the A816 and the A83 from Kennacraig to Campbeltown. These issues are recognised as something the party should try to address and if elected I will urge my party to do something about the blockages which occur every time there is a land slip or accident on the A83.
Argyll and Bute has had many Liberal Democrat representatives before and they have all done their best of the constituency. If elected I will work hard for the people and will concentrate all my energies on the constituency alone as I am not standing on the list.
Alison Hay, Liberal Democrat candidate for Argyll and Bute, 2011 Scottish Election.
George Doyle: Why I am standing as an Independent
Because George Doyle’s candidacy for the Argyll and Bute seat was announced after two thirds of the For Argyll Political Challenge was over, we have not had the chance to hear from him until now and many know too little about him.
So we’re introducing his article on why he is standing as an Independent – in which we have also given him a little more space – with some information about him and the life that brought him to Easdale.
George Doyle
A writer, Liverpudlian George Doyle was a lighthouse keeper for 8 years from 1966 – 1974, serving mainly on the South Bishop Light off the Welsh coast. The start of the process of automating Britain’s lights led him to leave – and his next job, in its ow way, showed the same disposition to a relatively solitary life and the wide open spaces.
He went straight on to work in the engine room of the RRS John Discoe, the British Antarctic Survey ship from September 1974 to 1978 when he applied for and got a job on an island in Loch Sween in Argyll, which was a holiday home for the family who then owned Drambuie.
While this job did not turn out to be quite what he’d expected, he stayed for over three years before spending seven or eight months working as a gardener on Little Cumbrae. From there he moved northwest into Argyll, again as a gardener, at An Cala in the village of Easdale, part of the former slate quarrying complex involving part of the mainland and the inshore islands here.
He describes being in Easdale in the same terms as a relationship – ‘it just clicked’, He can see no better place to be and is utterly content there, gardening and writing. He describes himself as poor but with absolutely no worries – no financial worries because he has all he needs, no neighbour worries and no work worries.
George Doyle on why he is standing as an Independent
I look on an election campaign as the job interview it essentially is – and I’ve never applied for a job I didn’t want.
If I’m not honest with my potential employers (the electorate), if I lie or prevaricate and am elected, this serves no one but myself.
This applies to all candidates.
I have given a true and honest CV. I have made no promises. Whoever people vote for, the method of election is of no consequence if their candidate has no equal voice in parliament.
It makes little difference to me who is First Minister – provided all elected MSPs are able to cast their vote for that person.
Political parties should be lobbyists and nothing more.
Governments pre-selected by parties are not democratic. To misquote Lincoln: ‘All of one party can be right some of the time. Some of one party can be right all of the time. But all of one party cannot be right all of the time’.
Every party and individual MSP has, at one time or another, some very good forward thinking policies. If we have party rule, mnost of these ideas will never see the light of day or will be so compromised as to be almost worthless.
That is to say we are promised the earth and end up with a well depleted bag of compost. (That’s the gardener in me coming out.)
Because I am a writer, I’m very concerned with the proposed closure of rural primary schools. I believe it will cost more financially (and socially, in the long term) to close any schools in rural areas.
When I’m working out my personal finances (not millions) I always have a starting figure of what’s in the kitty. Argyll and Bute Council, it seems, are a bit shy in saying how much there is at the start.
If they are in surplus, which several reliable sources say they are (a figure of £48 million has been mentioned twice in the media), then the cuts which they say are needed may perhaps be better understood. It’s no good saying “Cuts will be made’ if people are unaware whether this is a measure to recover a shortfall or to give us a larger surplus for a rainy day far into the future.
None of the candidates have mentioned the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the possible involvement of our troops in the Middle East. This is not just a Westminster problem. Many of those who have died have been from Scotland.
My reason for mentioning the war in Afghanistan is to get people to vote – and actually not necessarily for me.
When we’re sending young people – and very young people – out to die in someone else’s back yard in the name of democracy for all, each of us should take the half hour or so it needs to get to the Polling Station and vote for someone. We all know young people who are dying today to give others that right, so why should any of us think it’s OK not to bother to vote?
We all know people who’ve lost a partner, a parent or a child in this sort of conflict. I’ve listened to friends in Liverpool try to talk after they’ve had the knock on the door. To persuade you to use your vote, even if it;s not for me, I’d like you to read this poem, written from the fragments that are all it was possible to say when people I know got this sort of news.
Four poppies from Helmand
Megan, 37. Husband Tom, 39. 2 children. TA medical. Roadside bomb.
My dear kind man has gone to war.
‘Make sure the kids don’t fret too much.
‘I’ll be all right, it’s just one tour.’
Yet poppies grow in Helmand.
The kids were his whole life, he doted on them. He was sure he’d be hone. ‘No worries’, he said… but… sorry… I think they should all come home now.
****
Serena, 15. Brother Kieran, 22. Bomb disposal. IED casualty.
My best brud, Keery. Such a fool.
‘See you, Sizzler. Don’t touch my stuff.
‘This bomb disposal, hey, it;s cool.
‘Poppies explode in Helmand’.’
He was like my best real friend. He called me Sizzler. He said it like a Baltimore blood. You know… ‘Sizz-LA!’. I shouldn’t worry ’cause he was Super Scouse. ‘Indestruct-ABLE!’ He wasn’t, though… was he?
****
Sally, 50. Son David, 19. Infantry. Shot on patrol.
My big bold son has gone abroad.
‘Stop fussing, Mum. They won’t get me.
‘I can’t stay home. I get so bored.
‘All my mates are in Helmand.’
He was just drifting, really. Couldn’t settle. He and his mate, Robert, signed up together. He made loads of mates over there. Some of them come round now and then. His captain sent a lovely letter. Yeah, it’s hard but you just have to carry on, it’s what he would want, isn’t it?
****
Lynn, 39. Daughter Helen 21. Logistics. Landrover blown up.
My baby girl has gone to sign.
‘This bloody job is killing me.
‘Of course I won’t step on a mine.
‘I might not get to Helmand.’
Oh yeah, boy was she a wild child, but when she joined up – complete change. I was so proud. She got to be Corporal. Her boyfriend Max is out there now, he might get home when she… … She was so… so full of life.
The family Brit and all the rest
at Wootton Basset, standing proud
to welcome home and lay to rest.
Four poppies killed in Helmand.
George White: Why I belong to my party
The Liberal Party exists to put individuals 1st; its chief care is for the rights and opportunities of the individual.
I have based my campaign on ferries , fishermen and fairness.
On ferries , there needs to provision of RET on Clyde and Hebridean routes where it makes sense to do so. There needs to be a budget for vessel replacement in a timely manner to ensure vital lifeline services are maintained. My position on Gourock/Dunoon is well documented as I believe only an unrestricted passenger and Vehicle service between the pierheads would be acceptable to the Cowal community.
On fishermen , there needs to be support to the fishing industry and that means a review of the CFP ; the discards of perfectly good fish is a disgrace and there must be better quota management to allow fishermen to make a living ; remember for every fisherman that puts to sea , there will be 10 other jobs ashore depending on them.
On fairness , I can see nothing fair in the NHS being dismantled and thousands of public sector jobs being thrown on the scrapheap , whilst the Banks have returned to huge profits on our backs and the Bankers have returned to paying themselves huge bonuses. I , of course , am the wee guy in this election , but then again Argyll & Bute is full of wee guys so who knows.
Finishing on a humourous note ; I see William Hill puts me as the outsider at 100-1 ; it reminds me of my brother Jim , who was born in Campbeltown , who backed Foinavon in Grand National and guess what ; it won at 100-1.
George White, Liberal party candidate for Argyll and Bute, 2011 Scottish Election
The photograph above shows George White.
Michael Russell: Why I belong to my party
During the February 1974 Election, as a final year Labour supporting student at Edinburgh University I spent three weeks working for my closest friend who was ‘Labour’s Young Man for the Borders’ – the candidate fighting a hopeless battle against the established David Steel in the old constituency of Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles.
Yet on election day I took the bus back to Edinburgh and voted SNP. Since then I have never, not even during the darkest days of the 1980’s, voted for anyone else.
That election, if you are old enough to remember , was about ‘who ruled Britain’. It was a tussle between an unpopular Tory government under Edward Heath and a lackluster Labour party led by Harold Wilson and the issue was industrial muscle and modernisation.
I chose the SNP because I felt that Scotland and the priorities of Scotland’s people were being drowned out in an ill natured cacophony. I wanted to secure the right of this country and my fellow citizens to speak in their own voice and be heard wherever it matters. I thought that Scotland’s resources and the skills should be used for Scotland’s benefit or given to help others rather than merely drained away without consultation or compensation. Coming on for forty years later, I still do.
Those years have been roller coaster ones. In the 80s and 90s Scottish industry was decimated and Scottish oil wealth plundered. In the early part of this century we were dragged into an illegal war and then our public finances were destroyed. But slowly Scotland has asserted itself. The timid lion of that famous cartoon during the 1979 referendum, too feart to come out of its cage, has been replaced by a more confident, more outward looking beast. The 1997 devolution vote gave the green light to the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and the acknowledgment across the political spectrum that returning real powers back to our country would be a process, not an event.
I believe that such a process must keep moving forward. Within it a responsible SNP should lead by example, showing Scotland and the world that we can govern ourselves competently, thoughtfully and with principle. Once that it is proved , I hope we will persuade all those who live here to choose full powers for our Parliament in an independence referendum. But the final decision on that must be up to the people, not the politicians.
Providing competent , thoughtful and principled government has been the SNP’s aim over the past four years. No government is ever perfect, but I believe we have delivered much of what we promised and done it with care. We have also – slowly but steadily – tried to pursue our core belief of genuine localism : real devolution in which power and responsibility is passed to communities. Local authorities, alas, have not always been the best advertisement for that argument or the best implementers of it but land reform, further community buy outs and the strengthening of school clusters are actions that need intensified in order to be true to such a wider vision. So is listening to local people , not riding roughshod over their wishes.
Argyll has within it the cradle of Scottish nationhood – the wonderful evocative landscape of Kilmartin Glen. Argyll was part of the rise of the SNP in the 1970’s, and in 2007 Argyll & Bute chose the SNP again, returning Jim Mather as its MSP. Now as the SNP seeks a second term I think there are real advantages for this constituency in choosing my own party and, hopefully, myself to speak for it.
Those advantages lie in the very reasons I am a nationalist. Argyll & Bute needs to be heard in Scotland, just as Scotland needs to be heard in these islands and on the European and World stage. Like Scotland , communities in Argyll & Bute need to be able to make many of their own decisions, rather than have them made for them. And Argyll & Bute needs to flourish by using its own resources – the skills of its people, the great productivity of its land and waters, its natural beauty and history and its potential for energy and tourism – rather than have them drained away at somebody else’s whim or neglected because of outside indifference.
I am not in the SNP because I believe Scotland is better than anywhere else. I am in it because I think Scotland has the, as yet unfulfilled, potential to be as good as anywhere else. So does Argyll & Bute.
Michael Russell, SNP candidate for Argyll and Bute, 2011 Scottish Election
The photograph above shows Michael Russell campaigning in Mull.
Mick Rice: Why I belong to my party
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had our own political party that did exactly what we wanted? Trouble is that parties of one member each don’t achieve a lot. Belonging to any political party means compromise. Those that do not want compromise can enjoy the righteousness of being splendidly alone.
I want to make a difference because there is a lot wrong with this world. Politicians that do not want to change the world are, in my view unworthy.
World Peace may not be instituted because you elect me to the Scottish Parliament. I may have to settle for less.
I will be happy with:
- Affordable housing for young families
- Apprenticeships, training and jobs for our young people
- Better roads
- Decent public services
- Good rural schools and plenty of them
- Better care for the vulnerable, old and infirm through an NHS run National Care Service
- Jobs and a vibrant local economy
- New ferries for Dunoon – Gourock and Campbeltown – Ballycastle
No doubt you can all sign up to these objectives.
The Labour party has the best chance of achieving them because it is not distracted by the break up of the United Kingdom, or ideologically tied to making drastic cuts now with no thought to the future.
If, on the day of judgement, the Salvation Army threw down their instruments and ran away, you would conclude that they really didn’t believe in the hereinafter and it was a pretty poor show. I searched the local Saltire, SNP newspaper, and found just one reference to “independence” and that was a little nostalgic by-line in the masthead! The SNP appear to have abandoned their raison d’être and are attempting to cling on to power for its own sake!
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t put it past them to claim, if returned to office, to say that this is a mandate for independence!
Labour made mistakes in Government and your readers will want to remind us of them. However, Britain is a better place because of the last Labour government. We live in a more tolerant society – racism and sexism are not so prevalent. Gay people are treated with respect and have the opportunity to have their relationships legally recognised.
Labour gave:
- A Scottish Parliament
- The minimum wage
- Scottish pensioners and the disabled free Scotland wide travel
- Scottish pensioners free personal care
- Scotland brand new primary and secondary schools – Alex Salmond just cut the ribbons on the front doors Labour commissioned – and then cut the number of teacher available to teach in our schools.
- Our children EMA, university education, apprenticeships and the future jobs fund
- Child tax credits, pension credits, winter fuel allowance and a minimum wage.
- Record investment in the NHS with new hospitals, more nurses with better wages and an NHS to be proud of.
It gives me pride to say that Labour delivered on our promises – big promises that made a big difference to every household in Scotland.
The LibDems are facing meltdown at the polls because they broke, among other things, their pre election pledge on not increasing student fees.
But it is not just the LibDems who break promises! The SNP promised to abolish Council Tax, write off student debt, give grants to first-time buyers, maintain teacher numbers, reduce class sizes – all promises made, all promises broken.
The SNP candidate in 2007 promised new boats for Dunoon – Gourock and Campbeltown – Ballycastle and used the slogan “No boats No votes”.
Now that promise has been broken
No apology is spoken
His party has no shame
As it tries to shift the blame
“Tory, Labour and Lib Dem
Should have done it way back when”
“It should have been done before we won”
Is their refrain
The Sun newspaper endorsed the SNP as they are: ‘……tackling the economic crisis head-on by cutting public spending faster than anywhere else in the UK.’ (19 April)
Only a Scottish Labour government will stand up to the Tory-led coalition. If the LibDems do really badly, Charlie Kennedy and Ming Campbell will pull the plug on the coalition.
Argyll and Bute is not a traditional Labour area – I am not a traditional Labour candidate. I am Argyll and Bute’s man in the Labour party and not the Labour party’s man in Argyll and Bute.
If you vote for me you will get real change and a refreshingly good MSP!
Mick Rice, Labour candidate for Argyll and Bute, 2011 Scottish Election
The photograph above shows Mick Rice campaigning.