Councillor hits back at MSP
Dear Editor I write in response to the recent letter from Tory regional MSP Dean Lockhart making misguided claims about SNP representatives.
I’m a pragmatist and generally welcome criticism, especially if it’s constructive. I find it unhealthy not to be pragmatic in politics.
Most recently, we’ve seen the Scottish Government take a pragmatic approach with this year’s SQA results. This was a system put together with the best of intentions during a pandemic. It was a system that was almost entirely replicated in England and Wales under their respective Tory and Labour governments too.
However, the SNP Scottish Government was the first to listen to the concerns and make drastic changes to ensure that no young person lost out on their estimated grades and as a parent of a young person who was affected, I welcomed that approach.
When Scottish Education Secretary John Swinney announced that he would make these changes to Parliament, despite it being what the Tories and others asked for, they continued to call for John Swinney to resign, attempting (and failing) to push through a Motion of No Confidence. It strikes me that the Tories right now appear to be more interested in playing politics than working with others during a challenging and unprecedented crisis.
This year, the Tories have: taken Scotland out of the EU against its will, and with nearly 70 per cent of people in Stirling voting to remain; failed to extend business support far enough to include the range of local limited companies in the Stirling area during lockdown; failed to provide assurances to workers that their wages will be paid beyond October if they are unable to go to work; have (again) replaced their Scottish leader with Ruth Davidson, who is about to join the unelected House of Lords; and have demonstrated it’s one rule for the public and another rule for the Tory government, by letting Dominic Cummings off the hook after breaking lockdown laws. It’s not been a good year for Tory MSPS to choose to pontificate about representing local people.
This, coupled with the Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, it’s no wonder that the SNP and Scottish independence are favoured by the public in consistent opinion polls.
Working with Bruce Crawford MSP, Alyn Smith MP and Stirling SNP councillors on vital issues like the delivery of health and social care and the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Deal, I know the effort that is going in on the ground to support local communities and residents.
I am seeking the nomination from local SNP members because I want to continue that good work, addressing the issues facing local people, and standing up to Boris Johnson’s UK government, which is utterly failing local people on almost every level.
Cllr Ellen Forson Prospective SNP candidate for Stirling Constituency