Congratulations to candidates

What a fantastic result! The SNP have won their 11th consecutive national election with our highest number of councillors and largest ever vote share in local government elections.

Here in Stirling, we have become the largest party. I look forward to working with the new administration, of whichever make-up, to ensure Stirling recovers from the pandemic and continues to be a wonderful place to live, work and study.

My congratulations to the successful candidates from all parties, and commiserations to all those hopefuls that weren’t elected this time round. I am pleased that this was a very fair election, with respectful campaigns. It is also heartening for our democracy that every seat in Stirling had multiple candidates, and turnout in this area was again more than 50 per cent.

This is very high for local elections in the UK. Interest in politics has clearly been energised by the 2014 Referendum.

The elections marked the end of my time as a local government councillor, so that I can focus on my role as an MSP. It was a great privilege for me to serve as a councillor in Trossachs and Teith. I know that my good friend and tireless supporter Gene Maxwell elected as the SNP candidate in the ward will be a first-class replacement.

Whilst day to day running of council services is the responsibility of the Chief Executive and her officers, councillors play a vital role in our democracy, guiding and overseeing all the services that affect our daily lives and scrutinising standards.

The area I found most rewarding was representing constituents on local issues. I must have dealt with hundreds of requests for help, and I thank everyone who trusted me with their problems. I will of course continue to deal with constituency issues as the MSP, although these are usually different to the more local problems that councillors deal with.

It is however disappointing that so many people need to seek the intervention of elected representatives when let down by organisations that could have dealt with their problem in the first place.

Whilst the local elections were great for the SNP, the Conservatives and Labour were left scrapping for a distant second place. They were a disaster for the Conservatives who lost 100,000 votes nationally and 66 seats. Scots Tory leader Douglas Ross must shoulder a substantial share of blame for

this disaster after defending Boris Johnson in spite of justified public fury over the culture of lockdown partying at Westminster and the fines issued to him and Rishi Sunak as a result.

Despite some modest gains, Labour actually had their second worst result in Scotland in almost 50 years! This says a lot about the ability of Labour to win in Scotland. In England the situation was little better despite Boris Johnson’s sleaze-ridden, law-breaking Westminster government, Labour’s result was no better than what the party achieved in 2018 when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.

In Scotland we are used to the false promises of both the Tories and Labour, and that’s why the SNP has won the last 11 elections in Scotland. People in Stirling and across Scotland trust the SNP to lead the country forward at national and local level. SNP councillors across Scotland will have a razor-sharp focus on tackling the Tory-made cost of living crisis. Our priority is supporting families – not just in words but in action.

The SNP has a track record of using its limited powers to take action to ease household budgets, including the Scottish Child Payment, and increasing Scottish issued social security payments by six per cent, added to lower council tax bills compared to England, free prescriptions, tuition, personal care, and lower taxes for average earners.

We could do more, but the majority of financial levers lie with Westminster. By continually returning the SNP to power in local and national elections, the people of Scotland have clearly given us the democratic mandate for a new Scottish independence referendum in 2023.