Russell Findlay is the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party
For a decade or so, pontificating commentators have lamented so-called ‘post-truth’ politics but for those of us in Scotland, Oxford Dictionaries’ decision to make ‘post-truth’ its word of 2016 was behind the curve.
That’s because the idea of voters responding to feelings/beliefs over hard facts was weaponised two years prior by Yes activists during the rancorous independence referendum.
As new leader of the Scottish Conservatives — in a confusing new world of ‘my truths’ and industrial-scale disinformation and misinformation — I’m pushing for post-post-truth politics.
While we teeter on the edge of potential AI-powered mayhem, surely it has never been more important for politicians to tell it straight.
That is why I have been dogged and determined in my attempts to put a truth-seeking spotlight on the supersized state in Scotland.
Over the past quarter century of the devolution era, Labour and the SNP embarked on mass expansion so the McBlob almost blocks out whatever little sunlight we get up here.
They have a record 550,000 devolved public sector workers while public bodies spend around £1.3 billion each year on backroom corporate functions like communications, commercial, digital and HR.
This is just a tiny selection of some of the daft jobs: Senior Policy Advisor Ethical Digital Nation, Deputy Director Human Rights and Mainstreaming, Our Story Service Lead, Play Senior Policy Officer.
Taxpayers also fund a Constitutional Policy Unit which seeks to break up the UK but has no devolved remit.
The SNP public sector produced more waffle than a Belgian chef. Since 2015, ministers in Edinburgh have published 764 strategies and plans, equivalent to more than one every week.
They include an ‘NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Framework’, a ‘non-binary equality action plan’, and one for ‘discovering meaning, purpose and hope through person-centred wellbeing and spiritual care’.
The SNP have also created nearly 300 working groups supposedly to advise the devolved administration with one recently suggesting a ban on pet cats, sparking fury from everyone (perhaps other than the nation’s dog lovers).
Others include ‘Democracy Matters’ which meets every six weeks ‘to consider different aspects of community decision-making model design, as well as how these can be tested with communities and partners in the public and third sector’.
Then there’s a ‘Single-Use Disposable Cups Charge Advisory Group’, to ‘provide expertise and advice on the implementation of a minimum charge on single-use disposable beverage cups in Scotland’.
So the size of the state has exploded – but not for positive reasons. Much of it seems designed only to serve itself, not to serve the weary public who see their services only getting worse.
For most of my working life as a journalist, I was outside the political bubble and aghast at what the political establishment was doing to my country.
Often investigating the pernicious reach of organised crime, my fight was against injustice.
It is my contention that the SNP’s reckless and deliberate abuse of taxpayers’ money to nourish a self-serving client state is a great injustice against our country.
The injustice of paying punitively higher taxes than the rest of the UK, not being able to get a GP appointment, seeing your child’s education getting ever worse or criminals getting away with inflicting harm.
People suffer the daily grind of injustice in many aspects of their lives because the SNP have grown the state while neglecting service delivery.
As Scottish Conservative leader, I’m fighting for justice for people who have been betrayed by the failed left-wing ideology that has dominated devolution.
The big-state circus needs to pack up its tent. It guzzles record sums of cash without doing any better for families, workers and businesses.
The Scottish Parliament – the epicentre of self-righteous civic Scotland – has become utterly disconnected from the real world while seeking to further meddle in people’s lives.
Look no further than the utter madness of Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-ID law which continues to cause harm to women in Scotland despite being rightly blocked by the last UK Conservative government.
Change must happen. A clean break from the nonsensical ways of the SNP and Labour is critical.
Bold action is the only way to get our public services out of this mess and my party is the only one capable of delivering it.
We have set out plans to improve efficiency, affordability and effectiveness. We want lean government, doing the simple stuff well.
We would launch a Scottish Agency of Value and Efficiency (SAVE), similar to the agency tasked with taking a chainsaw to the misspending of US taxpayers’ dollars.
I would end government-by-talking-shop by axing at least one-third of the SNP’s 300 working groups and instead put the focus on frontline delivery.
Next, useless public sector jobs with silly titles should be scrapped and replaced by roles that have a demonstrable benefit to the paying public.
Our party would introduce a new public spending rule – a frontline first guarantee – to ensure the Scottish Government’s default requirement is to spend on the frontline of the NHS, police and schools rather than on bureaucrats in Edinburgh.
At a time of dire NHS waiting times and sinking school performances, spending more on government spin doctors and a lanyard-wearing activist class is a scandal.
Because money is tight – and precious – every expense must be justified.
We would adopt the business world practise of zero-based accounting so that each year, the books are reset, and every pound is subject to annual examination, assessment and justification.
Taking on the Holyrood political establishment, and the vested interests who benefit from the status quo, will be tough.
But I am determined to be honest with the people of Scotland and to deliver the common-sense that is so desperately needed. Telling the truth about all of this is the starting point.
Russell Findlay is the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party
For a decade or so, pontificating commentators have lamented so-called ‘post-truth’ politics but for those of us in Scotland, Oxford Dictionaries’ decision to make ‘post-truth’ its word of 2016 was behind the curve.
That’s because the idea of voters responding to feelings/beliefs over hard facts was weaponised two years prior by Yes activists during the rancorous independence referendum.
As new leader of the Scottish Conservatives — in a confusing new world of ‘my truths’ and industrial-scale disinformation and misinformation — I’m pushing for post-post-truth politics.
While we teeter on the edge of potential AI-powered mayhem, surely it has never been more important for politicians to tell it straight.
That is why I have been dogged and determined in my attempts to put a truth-seeking spotlight on the supersized state in Scotland.
Over the past quarter century of the devolution era, Labour and the SNP embarked on mass expansion so the McBlob almost blocks out whatever little sunlight we get up here.
They have a record 550,000 devolved public sector workers while public bodies spend around £1.3 billion each year on backroom corporate functions like communications, commercial, digital and HR.
This is just a tiny selection of some of the daft jobs: Senior Policy Advisor Ethical Digital Nation, Deputy Director Human Rights and Mainstreaming, Our Story Service Lead, Play Senior Policy Officer.
Taxpayers also fund a Constitutional Policy Unit which seeks to break up the UK but has no devolved remit.
The SNP public sector produced more waffle than a Belgian chef. Since 2015, ministers in Edinburgh have published 764 strategies and plans, equivalent to more than one every week.
They include an ‘NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Framework’, a ‘non-binary equality action plan’, and one for ‘discovering meaning, purpose and hope through person-centred wellbeing and spiritual care’.
The SNP have also created nearly 300 working groups supposedly to advise the devolved administration with one recently suggesting a ban on pet cats, sparking fury from everyone (perhaps other than the nation’s dog lovers).
Others include ‘Democracy Matters’ which meets every six weeks ‘to consider different aspects of community decision-making model design, as well as how these can be tested with communities and partners in the public and third sector’.
Then there’s a ‘Single-Use Disposable Cups Charge Advisory Group’, to ‘provide expertise and advice on the implementation of a minimum charge on single-use disposable beverage cups in Scotland’.
So the size of the state has exploded – but not for positive reasons. Much of it seems designed only to serve itself, not to serve the weary public who see their services only getting worse.
For most of my working life as a journalist, I was outside the political bubble and aghast at what the political establishment was doing to my country.
Often investigating the pernicious reach of organised crime, my fight was against injustice.
It is my contention that the SNP’s reckless and deliberate abuse of taxpayers’ money to nourish a self-serving client state is a great injustice against our country.
The injustice of paying punitively higher taxes than the rest of the UK, not being able to get a GP appointment, seeing your child’s education getting ever worse or criminals getting away with inflicting harm.
People suffer the daily grind of injustice in many aspects of their lives because the SNP have grown the state while neglecting service delivery.
As Scottish Conservative leader, I’m fighting for justice for people who have been betrayed by the failed left-wing ideology that has dominated devolution.
The big-state circus needs to pack up its tent. It guzzles record sums of cash without doing any better for families, workers and businesses.
The Scottish Parliament – the epicentre of self-righteous civic Scotland – has become utterly disconnected from the real world while seeking to further meddle in people’s lives.
Look no further than the utter madness of Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-ID law which continues to cause harm to women in Scotland despite being rightly blocked by the last UK Conservative government.
Change must happen. A clean break from the nonsensical ways of the SNP and Labour is critical.
Bold action is the only way to get our public services out of this mess and my party is the only one capable of delivering it.
We have set out plans to improve efficiency, affordability and effectiveness. We want lean government, doing the simple stuff well.
We would launch a Scottish Agency of Value and Efficiency (SAVE), similar to the agency tasked with taking a chainsaw to the misspending of US taxpayers’ dollars.
I would end government-by-talking-shop by axing at least one-third of the SNP’s 300 working groups and instead put the focus on frontline delivery.
Next, useless public sector jobs with silly titles should be scrapped and replaced by roles that have a demonstrable benefit to the paying public.
Our party would introduce a new public spending rule – a frontline first guarantee – to ensure the Scottish Government’s default requirement is to spend on the frontline of the NHS, police and schools rather than on bureaucrats in Edinburgh.
At a time of dire NHS waiting times and sinking school performances, spending more on government spin doctors and a lanyard-wearing activist class is a scandal.
Because money is tight – and precious – every expense must be justified.
We would adopt the business world practise of zero-based accounting so that each year, the books are reset, and every pound is subject to annual examination, assessment and justification.
Taking on the Holyrood political establishment, and the vested interests who benefit from the status quo, will be tough.
But I am determined to be honest with the people of Scotland and to deliver the common-sense that is so desperately needed. Telling the truth about all of this is the starting point.