This coming election will be a clear choice – who do you really trust to deliver?

by Stephen Flynn
Posted on
1 month ago
4 min read

I’ve been in Westminster for nearly five years now. And no one understands Scotland’s frustration with the broken Westminster system more than your SNP MPs who have to live and breathe it day after day.

It’s never been more important than it is now that we work together where we can. Our First Minister John Swinney has made admirable attempts to reach across party lines and encourage cooperation and compromise. But that can’t distract Scotland from the cold, hard truth. Whatever we achieve by working with Westminster, the system is completely, utterly broken.

It’s clear to see – Westminster is beyond fixing

We’re living in the most challenging of times.

Creaking public services are failing hardworking families who simply want to rely on them. National infrastructure that is chronically underfunded and undervalued by the Westminster politicians pulling the strings. And an opposition Labour Party that has no solutions to the economic and climate crises that will define our era – the opposite, in fact. They are desperate to dodge the big issues and embrace the Conservative agenda.

And where will this leave us? These isles are crying out for more power to our communities, a revitalisation of our economy, major structural investment for the future. The Westminster political establishment will ignore these calls and carry on as normal, doing little more than managing the decline of broken, Brexit Britain.

The Tories are soon to present an Autumn Statement – a  last chance for their out-of-luck Chancellor to make some big changes to the UK’s groaning tax system and make this country a fairer place.

Instead, the only eye-catching announcement is that they intend to tweak stamp duty. They are too focused with fanatical attempts to criminalise homelessness and crack down on our minority communities. Is this honestly the best they can do?

Scotland can achieve so much more

Look to our Parliament in Holyrood for an inspiring contrast. Your SNP Scottish Government saw the faults that riddled stamp duty and abolished it completely, replacing it with the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax. A fairer, simpler system. And this isn’t even radical policy making. It’s common sense.

If we can’t rely on Westminster MPs for basic common sense, how can we look to them to solve the major challenges of our times? The SNP isn’t afraid to be bold. We believe children of today shouldn’t be forced to endure Westminster’s legacy of inaction and stagnation.

A child born in Scotland today will benefit from the free baby box, full of essentials that is available to all families.

As that child gets older, they’ll be entitled to free nursery – and the expanded hours of free childcare.

If that child is born into a family in poverty, they will receive the Scottish Child Payment – a game-changing entitlement that is lifting 100,000 children out of poverty.

If anyone in that family falls ill they won’t be faced with prescription charges, a tax on ill health.

If they need an eye test, to look for a Labour Party policy for example, they’ll be entitled to an appointment free of charge.

When that child grows up, 95% of their peers will go on into apprenticeships, further education or work.

And if they choose to go to university, they will benefit from free tuition, reducing their cost of living and enabling them to get ahead – because in Scotland, we believe no generation should be worse off than their parents.

When they graduate, it’s likely their first job won’t pay the kind of wage I’m lucky to enjoy – as such, they’ll pay less tax than anywhere else in the UK.

They’ll have access to affordable housing – and the lowest council tax in the UK.

And if the time comes that their parents need extra help due to age or illness – they’ll be entitled to free personal care.

The contrast with Westminster is startling. This is what your SNP Scottish Government has achieved for the children of today. Imagine what we can do without the constraints of devolution. Imagine how much brighter our children’s future will be with independence.

Now is the moment

This election is a turning point – to keep the dream alive. Labour have made no bones of their intention to ignore Scotland’s repeated votes for independence-supporting parties. They want to use this election to sideline our Parliament, silence our voice, and kill independence stone dead.

They’ll ignore the pragmatism and collegiate work of John Swinney’s SNP Scottish Government. They’ll ignore its mandate and seek to sow more seeds of division.

The Tories’ punishing policies will continue – austerity, the bedroom tax, the rape clause, the two child cap. A policy that even Suella Braverman, figurehead of the Tory right, believes should be abolished.

Scotland can’t stand another five years of Tory policies. And our children deserve better than to grow up with the legacy of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – whether it’s forced on to us by Westminster politicians wearing blue or red rosettes.

This election is about trust – the Tories and Labour both have the ability and the intelligence to deliver the fundamental changes for our children that the SNP is proud to have on our record. But look at their bleak, dismal legacy. Look at all those decades of decline in the shadow of Thatcherism. Look at what little they’re promising. Do you TRUST them build a better future for your children?

I don’t, but then I’ve had a front row seat – quite literally.

The most ironic thing of all is that their incompetence can now be seen a mile off. It can be seen from Dundee to Dumfries, from Lewis to Lanark.

We deserve better than another five years of broken, Brexit Britain. We deserve more than this stale status quo.

Only the SNP will deliver the change our communities so desperately need.