Andrew Bowie is a former Energy Minister and currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
There are times when politics matters. When elections matter.
This is one of these times.
Last week I had an email from a constituent, a resident in the North East. A young working mum of two in the town of Stonehaven who, since she was 17, since she left school, had worked in the Oil and Gas industry. She was despairing because she’d just been told that she was being made redundant in December.
She was desperate. Anxious for herself but also for her two kids at nursery and her colleagues.
This type of email is a near weekly occurrence.
I’ve had to reply to the owner of a restaurant who was having to close because of new crushing business rates and sky-high energy bills.
I’ve consoled an elderly rural couple who can’t afford to fill up their car and so are putting off doctors appointments and cancelling essential trips.
Across Scotland, the picture is the same.
Farmers, who for two years were unable to plan for the future because of the threat of the pernicious family farms tax, now see the price of fertiliser and wonder if it’s worth carrying on. Teachers, dedicated to the most important vocation in our nation, the education of our children, the next generation, scared to walk into classrooms for fear they might be the next victim of soaring violence in our schools. Families, crushed, as a loved one becomes yet another statistic in Scotland’s shameful drug deaths scandal. Islanders missing vital appointments, important moments, due to more multi-million-pound ferry breakdowns.
This is SNP Scotland in Labour’s Britain.
Hard working people. People who do the right thing. People who get up every morning, put in a shift. Support their families, their communities and their country. Working ever harder. Putting ever more in. And getting less and less out. Punished for doing the right thing as they watch both their governments govern for benefits street, not their street. Their taxes and their bills going up and up and up. The future seeming bleaker with every passing day.
And what do we hear from our Scottish National Party? What’s their solution? Free school bags. A guaranteed income for actors. Soviet style price caps. That is the limit of their ambition. It is abundantly clear that they have run out of ideas. It would be laughable if the situation wasn’t so serious.
Labour? Frankly from Anas Sarwar and Douglas Alexander down, they should be hanging their head in shame at the total disregard and contempt they are showing to Scotland’s oil and gas workers as they willingly destroy that industry. The disinterest and disdain they have for farmers and businesses.
Having spent ten years as Scotland’s third party, nodding through SNP Budgets and helping them pass the mad-cap Gender Recognition Act, they offer nothing for Scotland. Just more of the same but in red instead of yellow.
The Greens? Extremist, Marxist, crackpots who would scrap prisons, no, really, and shut down what remains of our oil and gas sector. And ‘make more things free… funded by increasing tax yet further on successful Scots. As if any high earner would be left in Scotland should they get back into Government,
And Reform? Malcolm Offord? Frankly Reform UK Scotland are party of wannabes, chancers and rejects who stand for nothing other than their own ambition. Ambitious, not for our communities or for Scotland. Ambitious only for themselves.
Let’s get one thing absolutely clear. Reform are not a unionist party.
You are not a unionist party if you allow separatists to stand for election in your name. You are not a unionist party if you are relaxed about another referendum on ripping our great nation apart.
Because it really does matter. For hard working Scots. For our businesses. For our children. For Scotland. For the United Kingdom, this election matters.
The Scottish Conservative Party fights every day for those people who feel abandoned by their governments. For a stronger, wealthier and more secure Scotland within our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Pro business. Pro aspiration. Cutting tax. For the people that do the right thing day in day out. Not rewarding those who don’t.
And fighting for Scotland’s place in our United Kingdom. Because that is at stake here.
The Scottish Conservative and Unionists stand resolutely opposed to prospect of another referendum. We will focus on Scotland’s national priorities, not Scotland’s nationalist priorities.
Offering hope, optimism and a belief that with hard work tomorrow can and will be better than today.
In this election, every vote for parties other than the Scottish Conservatives is one less vote to stop the SNP. That’s why we have been so resolutely focussed ensuring our core message – that wherever you are on Scotland, if you want to move Scotland on, it’s essential the Unionist vote, the vote for Common Sense, needs to stick together.
And that wherever you are in Scotland, the regional list vote, on the peach ballot paper, needs to be for the Scottish Conservatives so we can, once again, stop an SNP majority and get Scotland Working.
Andrew Bowie is a former Energy Minister and currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
There are times when politics matters. When elections matter.
This is one of these times.
Last week I had an email from a constituent, a resident in the North East. A young working mum of two in the town of Stonehaven who, since she was 17, since she left school, had worked in the Oil and Gas industry. She was despairing because she’d just been told that she was being made redundant in December.
She was desperate. Anxious for herself but also for her two kids at nursery and her colleagues.
This type of email is a near weekly occurrence.
I’ve had to reply to the owner of a restaurant who was having to close because of new crushing business rates and sky-high energy bills.
I’ve consoled an elderly rural couple who can’t afford to fill up their car and so are putting off doctors appointments and cancelling essential trips.
Across Scotland, the picture is the same.
Farmers, who for two years were unable to plan for the future because of the threat of the pernicious family farms tax, now see the price of fertiliser and wonder if it’s worth carrying on. Teachers, dedicated to the most important vocation in our nation, the education of our children, the next generation, scared to walk into classrooms for fear they might be the next victim of soaring violence in our schools. Families, crushed, as a loved one becomes yet another statistic in Scotland’s shameful drug deaths scandal. Islanders missing vital appointments, important moments, due to more multi-million-pound ferry breakdowns.
This is SNP Scotland in Labour’s Britain.
Hard working people. People who do the right thing. People who get up every morning, put in a shift. Support their families, their communities and their country. Working ever harder. Putting ever more in. And getting less and less out. Punished for doing the right thing as they watch both their governments govern for benefits street, not their street. Their taxes and their bills going up and up and up. The future seeming bleaker with every passing day.
And what do we hear from our Scottish National Party? What’s their solution? Free school bags. A guaranteed income for actors. Soviet style price caps. That is the limit of their ambition. It is abundantly clear that they have run out of ideas. It would be laughable if the situation wasn’t so serious.
Labour? Frankly from Anas Sarwar and Douglas Alexander down, they should be hanging their head in shame at the total disregard and contempt they are showing to Scotland’s oil and gas workers as they willingly destroy that industry. The disinterest and disdain they have for farmers and businesses.
Having spent ten years as Scotland’s third party, nodding through SNP Budgets and helping them pass the mad-cap Gender Recognition Act, they offer nothing for Scotland. Just more of the same but in red instead of yellow.
The Greens? Extremist, Marxist, crackpots who would scrap prisons, no, really, and shut down what remains of our oil and gas sector. And ‘make more things free… funded by increasing tax yet further on successful Scots. As if any high earner would be left in Scotland should they get back into Government,
And Reform? Malcolm Offord? Frankly Reform UK Scotland are party of wannabes, chancers and rejects who stand for nothing other than their own ambition. Ambitious, not for our communities or for Scotland. Ambitious only for themselves.
Let’s get one thing absolutely clear. Reform are not a unionist party.
You are not a unionist party if you allow separatists to stand for election in your name. You are not a unionist party if you are relaxed about another referendum on ripping our great nation apart.
Because it really does matter. For hard working Scots. For our businesses. For our children. For Scotland. For the United Kingdom, this election matters.
The Scottish Conservative Party fights every day for those people who feel abandoned by their governments. For a stronger, wealthier and more secure Scotland within our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Pro business. Pro aspiration. Cutting tax. For the people that do the right thing day in day out. Not rewarding those who don’t.
And fighting for Scotland’s place in our United Kingdom. Because that is at stake here.
The Scottish Conservative and Unionists stand resolutely opposed to prospect of another referendum. We will focus on Scotland’s national priorities, not Scotland’s nationalist priorities.
Offering hope, optimism and a belief that with hard work tomorrow can and will be better than today.
In this election, every vote for parties other than the Scottish Conservatives is one less vote to stop the SNP. That’s why we have been so resolutely focussed ensuring our core message – that wherever you are on Scotland, if you want to move Scotland on, it’s essential the Unionist vote, the vote for Common Sense, needs to stick together.
And that wherever you are in Scotland, the regional list vote, on the peach ballot paper, needs to be for the Scottish Conservatives so we can, once again, stop an SNP majority and get Scotland Working.