The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Final night of political sparring
Dundee candidates answer questions from members of the public
The final evening of political sparring in The Courier’s hustings took place in Dundee last night.
Audience members were invited to DC Thomson’s headquarters at Meadowside to pose questions to politicians vying to represent them in next week’s election.
The Dundee East candidates were Chris McIntyre of the Lib Dems, Labour’s Lesley Brennan and Eleanor Price of the Conservatives.
Candidates for Dundee West were Chris Law of the SNP and Independent candidate Sean Dobson.
The Courier’s political editor Kieran Andrews was in the chair.
The hot topics of the evening were the challenges faced by the city and the prospects for Dundee’s youth.
One young attendee said he was dispirited by the lack of investment in the area and asked the candidates what they planned to do to improve the futures for Dundee’s youth.
Mr Dobson said: “What needs to be done for young people is we need to build a better, stronger economy that gives people lifetime opportunities.
“I am an Independent and if I am given the honour of being the next member of parliament I will talk with whichever ministers I have to talk with, colleagues and experts in the field to create a better economy, a better society and a better way of funding higher education.”
Mr Law added: “Cuts when you are just coming out of school and into further education is the last thing you need to be facing.
“The SNP have continuously said rocks will melt in the sun before we introduce tuition fees, something the Lib Dems and Tories introduced in 2010 and the Tories hope to continue.
“Jobs are very important – we’ve invested £1 billion in the city in Dundee in the last 10 years and continue to do so with the waterfront development, and I’ve already been a champion to the Tay City deal that will bring up to 15,000 jobs.”
The youngest candidate, Chris McIntyre, said housing benefit should not be denied to young people.
He said: “For it not to be available to people under 21 is a disaster.
“I’m only 23 and there’s no way on Earth I’m going to be able to afford my own home in the near future.”
Ms Price said her party supported “personal responsibility”.
“We are looking to boost the economy – we have a very strong track record on that,” she said.
“It’s about making sure there are jobs out there for when you leave university.
“There have been some very nice promises made by both Labour and the SNP with extra spending, but there’s no money tree – we need to control the deficit and make Britain a open and attractive place for companies to come and create jobs.”
Referring to a recent Courier front page, that showed an image of a drug addict passed out in the stairwell of the West Bell Street multi-storey car park, Ms Price said no one could shy away from Dundee’s social problems.
“I used to work in a homeless shelter in London,” she said.
“I’ve worked overseas for charities. Just because I’m a Tory does not mean that I don’t care passionately about the poorest in society.
“I think the best way for people to get on is to have job opportunities. We are looking to tackle the causes of poverty, not just use sticking plasters by ever-increasing promises of benefits.
“We have to ask ourselves, why are people homeless, why jobless, why are people coming out with poor educational results?
“That’s what we have to think about in this city.”
Mr McIntyre added: “Dundee has a massive, massive drugs crisis.
“The Liberal Democrats are keen to establish it as a health problem and not criminalise people – because that’s the way to best solve the problem.
“It doesn’t stop there – some of the tenement blocks are falling to bits and we have landlords who just don’t care.
“I see it when I am out campaigning – it’s about hearing the voices on the ground, which is how you change things.”
“Come next Friday there will either be a Labour government or a Conservative one, that’s the choice,” added Ms Brennan.
“We want transformational change, we want real change for working people.”
We have to control benefits spending so it reaches the most vulnerable. Money doesn’t grow on trees. ELEANOR PRICE (CONSERVATIVE)
The Scottish budget comes from Westminster and has been cut by 10% in seven years. CHRIS LAW (SNP)
I am standing as an Independent because it’s 30 years since I first voted and I thought I’d give people a fifth choice. SEAN DOBSON (INDEPENDENT)
Dundee has ahugedrug problem, and the Liberal Democrats see this as a health issue, and would decriminalise it. CHRIS MCINTYRE (LIBERAL DEMOCRATS)
My values are shaped as a working-class woman. My mum was a cleaner here at DC Thomson for 30 years. LESLEY BRENNAN (LABOUR)