Scottish Conservative Manifesto

I took part in a BBC radio programme this evening in response to the Scottish Conservative manifesto.


Frankly this is an incredible document. They are proposing a 15% cut in the Scottish budget, that’s around £5bn. Yet at the same time want to protect the NHS budget, freeze the council tax and business rates - and protect police numbers. I know it’s an election, but this simply doesn’t add up. The NHS alone is one third of the Scottish budget, so you would have to cut whole swathes of services to do this.

Then you have the privatisation of Scottish Water. That would result in a massive tax hike for water charge payers as they pay for the purchase price, dividends, profits and fat cat salaries.

They also require the Scottish Government to implement the recommendations of the Independent Budget Review. This is without even viewing the recommendations. We elect politicians to make decisions on our behalf – not to hand those judgements over to three 'wise' men. We still live in a democracy and that means politicians have to be accountable for decisions, not technocrats.

As I said earlier - incredible!