Tag Archives: Jamie McGrigor

Jamie McGrigor: Why I belong to my party

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Jamie McGrigor

Until I became a candidate for the Conservatives in 1996 I hadn’t been a member of any political party.

I voted Conservative because even as a youngster I was impressed by Michael Noble who was our MP. I remember meeting him at the sheep dog trials at Cairndow in the 1960s and he came up and spoke to me. Later he became Secretary of State for Scotland and I was proud that he was my MP.

At that time things seemed to be improving, especially the roads kept getting upgraded. The section between the Rest and Be Thankful and the Dunoon turning was known as the 44 bumps but the Conservative government straightened it out and we had a beautiful flat new road.

It is the same throughout the Highlands: most major infrastructure projects, road improvements, causeways, bridges to islands and flyovers have all been instigated by Conservative governments which believed in investment in the future, not just revenue expenditure which was the Labour way, putting pounds in people’s pockets. But under Labour, the pound in your pocket became worth less and less. I remember when we could only take £65 out of the country because of Harold Wilson’s attempt to save our currency after his policies had ruined it.

So it was a choice then between Labour and Conservative until the SNP reared its head with its slogan-ridden ‘It’s our oil’. This seemed to me short sighted when surely our whole nation could benefit from oil revenue.  I was a one nation Conservative who deeply believed in a United Kingdom family who should stand or fall together.

I remember attending an SNP gathering at the Galley of Lorn in Ardfern in 1974. It seemed to be based more on emotion and resentment than forward thinking. Why should they claim a monopoly on patriotism when I felt it was patriotic to be Scottish and British at the same time, and to be proud of both. Their views seemed narrow and parochial and against what I considered the best national interest.

So  at that stage I was still a Conservative, having considered Labour and the SNP. But then of course along came Ray Michie, who like Michael Noble, was most people’s local favourite. But whilst I sympathised with Liberalism, I felt it was the ‘Dem’ bit that left them with a wish list to be all things to all people, avoiding any unpopular decision. As someone said, if God had been a Liberal we would not have had the 10 commandments, but rather the 10 suggestions!

So in a nutshell that’s why I belong to the Conservative Party because it believes in freedom and as little government interference as possible. It stands for encouraging vibrant communities where people feel a sense of importance and belonging. It reduces taxes and red tape for small businesses. It stands for long term investment in infrastructure and rural schools with small class sizes and teachers who insist on a full focus on reading, writing and arithmetic as well as a knowledge of history and biodiversity. It wants more health visitors for children and more carers for old people in their own homes  or in local nursing hospitals. It supports local hospices. It will take unpopular short term decisions to restore long term prosperity for our people.

Labour has left us with the worst economic situation since after the Napoleanic Wars in 1820. We need a tough plan to reduce the deficit.  People need jobs. We will support those who cannot find jobs or cannot work but we will insist that no family gets more on benefits that the average family earns by working. We will ensure that our universities remain top class because Scotland has always produced the brains to produce the engineers who this time can bring forward the dawn of a new age of Enlightenment in technology, especially the potential of the renewable industries which are a fabulous window of opportunity for the future of the Highlands & Islands and Argyll & Bute.

So ,as you asked me to do, I have used reasoned argument to explain why I am not with Labour, the SNP or LibDems. I never saw any merit in the policies of Stalin who murdered all the Russian hill farmers, and although sometimes I think that European Commissioners sit down after breakfast to dream up directives to annoy and upset Scottish business I find the views of UKIP negative with few positive solutions. I am a Conservative because I believe that my party is more radical and more forward thinking for a better long term future than any of the others.

Jamie McGrigor, Conservative candidate for Argyll and Bute, 2011 Scottish Election

The photograph above shows Jamie McGrigor in Oban.

Jamie McGrigor: Economic development strategy for Argyll

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Jamie McGrigor at Oban

Improving the transport infrastructure of Argyll & Bute is my main priority in terms of what needs to be done to support existing companies, maintain their competitiveness and, crucially, attract new jobs and investment to this area. It is the availability of well paid, high quality jobs which will keep our talented youngsters living in Argyll & Bute rather than moving elsewhere and so underpin our communities.

The state of the two trunk roads serving Argyll & Bute, the A82 and A83, is simply not good enough and compares badly with the rest of Scotland. We bounce from one pothole to another and have to put up with roads blocked by landslides or so-called temporary traffic lights, some of which have been temporary for 30 years. It’s simply not good enough if we want to portray ourselves as a modern, forward thinking country at the forefront of Western Europe which wants to attract investment. Main roads not only perform a function but give an impression. And that impression is hardly helped by the appalling state of the local roads which are the responsibility of the Council.  As my old friend in the Isle of Mull tells me: “In Mull we don’t drive on the left, we drive on what’s left of the roads”. And that’s funny but not funny for the businesses and individuals that depend on the roads, including tourism which is also such a key driver of the local economy.

Ferry links also need to be better and I will continue to campaign for the resumption of the Campbeltown to Ballycastle ferry service which would be a real boon to the economy of Kintyre. The position of the Gourock-Dunoon ferry remains one of serious concern.

Achieving fast broadband throughout Argyll & Bute is another important issue. I am delighted that superfast broadband is being piloted in the Highlands & Islands and I have long argued that a first class broadband system is key to business growth, especially in the remote rural and island communities of this part of the world which can be at a disdavantage due to peripherality and distance from markets. Next generation access provides broadband speeds far in excess of the current technology and I am very pleased that the Highlands & Islands will be at the forefront of the development of these new services.

The renewables sector also has the potential to boost jobs in Argyll & Bute. I was delighted to be able to campaign to secure what should now be a sustainable and long term future for the Skykon factory at Macrihanish with its takeover by a new consortium. This facility is the only wind tower turbine manufacturer in Scotland and with all political parties being committed to the future of renewables in Scotland it should be able to take advantage of the need for technology in the onshore and offshore sectors.

Jamie McGrigor at Skykon with Annabel Goldie and Donald Kelly

I also believe that small scale hydro developments should be encouraged more in Argyll and will argue for fundamental reform of the feed in tariff regime so that potential developers, including farmers and crofters, are able to access.

I mentioned tourism earlier and I have no hesitation in returning to that subject. Tourism operators face intense competition from all over the rest of Europe and indeed the world and it is my belief that government and its agencies at all levels should do whatever it can to assist them. That’s why I was determined to support the many businesses in Argyll who faced the removal of their advertising road signs by the Council- even though some of these signs had been up for decades!

Argyll & Bute has some of the finest scenery in Europe and in addition some of the best coastline, rivers and lochs. Freshwater fishing tourism, combined with country sports, remains a very important sector of our economy- partricularly on our remote rural and island communities- and I am proud of my consistent record in speaking up for angling, shooting and stalking. I pledge that I will continue to do this forecfully if I am re-elected in May. I also believe that marine tourism has the potential to expand in Argyll & Bute and that is why, for example, I have fully supported Oban Bay Marine’s ambitious and positive plans for extra pontoons in Oban Bay. And we need to do everything possible to promote our world class restaurants, hotels, guest houses and B&Bs and focus on the renowned local food which they often use; and publicise our world beating tourist attractions.

Many tourists of course come to Argyll & Bute because of the well-managed landscape which is a result of the work of generations of farmers, crofters and land managers. Farming and crofting- along with sea fisheries in some parts – remain some of our key primary industries and I will continue to champion their needs if I am re-elected. The decline in the number of sheep and cattle being kept on our farms and crofts in recent years, particularly on our uplands, is a major cause for alarm which will have to be considered as future decisions on agricultural support payments are made in the years ahead. In terms of our agricultural market infrastructure, I was pleased to be able to work successfuly with United Auctions to persuade the Scottish Government to upgrade Damally Mart which is a hub for the Argyllshire farming sector. Aquaculture is also an important sector and I will continue to speak out in its support.

At UK level the Conservative led government is taking the tough but right decisions needed to restore this country’s public finances to a healthy state. They are also continuing to put pressure on our banks to lend to our small and medium sized companies. I am proud of my record over the last four years in Holyrood in standing up for the needs of Scotland’s wealth creators and business communtiy, especially our small businesses who are the backbone of our economy. The reduction and abolition of business rates for tens of thousands of small businesses was a real achievement, as was the multi-million pound town centre regeneration fund. I will always seek to speak up for the needs of Scotland’s businesses, fight for investment in infrastructure such as roads and broadband and stop government at all levels imposing red tape and bureaucracy.

I believe I have had a good track record across the Highlands & Islands over the last 12 years and I pledge that I would work 110% for the people of Argyll & Bute if they give me the chance to be their constituency MSP.

Jamie McGrigor

Jamie McGrigor is the Conservative Party’s candidate for the Argyll and Bute seat in the Scottish Election 2011 which will be held on 5th May.

The photographs accompanying this article have been copyright cleared. They show:

  • Jamie McGrigor at Oban
  • Jamie McGrigor, second left, at the former Skykon plant in Machrihanish, with Annabel Goldie and Donald Kelly.

NOTE: Some modest editing was done to this article to bring it into line with the Rules of Engagement of this challenge.

Jamie McGrigor: My Argyll

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Jamie McGrigor

Argyll for me started at the age of 6 when my family moved from Stirlingshire to a hill farm on the banks of Loch Awe.

My early memories of Cladich School and my exceptional school teacher, Mrs Keith, are still vivid. Breaks from lessons were spent guddling and poaching trout out of the burn behind the school. Like the trout, I was hooked for life by this land of wonderful, unspoilt nature and happy, smiling people. What I remember most was the way our family was so warmly welcomed by the local community into which we had migrated; I had so many new friends, young and old.

I marvelled at the freedom Argyll allowed a child. I climbed waterfalls and fished the peaty pools and with my father roamed the moorlands and fished the endless hill lochs. Much time was spent in rowing dinghies on Loch Awe and I learned to sail. Those days spent on rivers and lochs engrained in me a love of the flora and fauna of beautiful Argyll.

Then came the wonderful discovery of the islands, the hidden jewels of Argyll, the well kept secrets of the glorious sunny weather of Tiree and Coll where the majesty of the shimmering sands and sparkling blue sea was breathtaking; where swimming amongst the seals in the waves and exploring the rock pools was mixed with the excitement of helping a local Coll lobster fisherman with his creels and listening to his tales of past and present island life, some tragic and some hilarious. My lobsterman was called Neilie John and he had a 1949 Fordson van with the handbrake attached to the back door by a rope and there was a blackbird’s nest in the glove compartment.

The winds and waters and magical scenery of Argyll inspire romanticism and produced the famous story-tellers of Argyll. The monument to Duncan Ban MacIntyre, the great Gaelic bard who wrote Ode to Ben Doran, stands above the village of Dalmally and there is also the monument to Neil Munro standing beside the road to Inveraray, the writer of serious books like the New Road and John Splendid, but above all the creator of Para Handy, the Argyll skipper of a steam puffer who personifies the pride, humour, doggedness and also the passion of the Argyll person.

Later, when I became a farmer, I was welcomed into a world where Argyll people judged you by what you did and what you could offer rather than by who you were. They had an unusual attitude of tolerance. I always remember the notice above an Argyll family’s hearth: “There are no strangers here, only friends we have yet to meet.” That struck me as a world saving sentence, one to which many national leaders should pay heed in these troubled times.

I had previously worked in the big cities of Glasgow and London, where the notion of not knowing my neighbours by name or at least by sight was a new and strange sensation and when I returned to Argyll I realised the benefits of being part of a society and community which cared about each other’s welfare and did not always look for financial reward for jobs done to benefit others.

It was also a society that revered, to some extent, old age and experience and where the impatient young had to wait their turn but this seemed to me to ensure that every dog would have their day. At any rate, it was a happy society where nearly everyone played a useful part and when I think back maybe that paints a picture of the Big Society which David Cameron would like to reinspire nationally.

As I grew deeper rooted I became more aware of the Scottish culture, particularly the dancing and accordion and fiddle music bands made up of people from different walks of life who shared their talent, probably inherited from  the Gaels of old.

I watched primary industries change the face of the area and saw forestry villages filled with forestry workers who created their own amusements and culture but over the years have watched the local workforce dissipate as the forestry commission put more of their work out to contract and former forestry houses became the homes of people often from other areas of the country.

This is just one of the changes in the windows that open and close. Once upon a time Argyll was heavily populated and the great lochs, especially Loch Awe, used as waterways, first by the hunter gatherers and then by the farmers who followed them.

People in Argyll have always lived on the edge and have adapted well to hostile weather and climate conditions and the hardness of life has fashioned the character which like the scenery is welcoming and open to new ideas. When new windows open Argyll folk are quick to utilise the new opportunities.

Returning to farming, I have so many happy memories of attending auction markets in Oban and particularly Dalmally where the conversation or craic, as it is sometimes called, grew merrier and merrier as the day wore on. The barman was referred to as the man from Del Monte as he always said yes!

I witnessed many years when prices were so disappointing that those in other industries might have turned off the lights and walked away but these Argyll farmers would always treat success and failure in terms of yesterday and tomorrow. Like Kipling’s poem “If” they would ‘meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same’.

In 1999 to my great joy I was elected to serve the people of the Highlands & Islands in the new Scottish Parliament and living in Argyll & Bute, the most southerly constituency of this wonderful region I could at last do something positive for the people and land I had grown to love. My main aim is and always will be to support our local firms, our individuals and our families and to reinvest in Argyll’s roads and ferries and front line services.

Jamie McGrigor

Jamie McGrigor is the Conservative Party’s candidate for the Argyll and Bute seat at the Scottish Election 2011 which will be held on 5th May.

The photograph above shows Jamie McGrigor at a meeting in Lochgilphead.