The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Greens ‘offer hope’
The Green Party has outlined its 10 key election pledges which it says will offer a “message of hope” to voters.
Co-leader Caroline Lucas vowed to create a “confident and caring Britain which reaches for a bigger future” as she unveiled the party’s vision.
The Green Guarantee details plans to “roll back privatisation of the NHS” and give people a referendum on the terms of a Brexit deal.
It promises to protect freedom of movement and “immediately guarantee” the rights of EU citizens in the UK.
Ms Lucas said: “The Green Guarantee is about hope and we need hope now like never before.
“Ours is a message of hope because we believe if we stand together for what matters, we can change the course of history.” After 30 years, the Scottish Conservatives hope to end the SNP’s grip on Moray.
The SNP has held the constituency since 1987, but the Tories are confident their candidate Douglas Ross has a chance of snatching the seat from rival Angus Robertson.
The pair went head to head in 2015, with the SNP deputy leader increasing his majority to 9,000 as part of the SNP landslide following the Scottish independence referendum.
But much has changed in just two years. The EU referendum saw Moray vote to remain in the EU by the narrowest margin in Scotland at just 50.1%.
With Mr Robertson continuing to campaign about how disastrous he believes a hard Brexit would be, this could turn some of those Brexit voters away from the SNP. Further indications of the scale of the fight come from last year’s Holyrood election.
Mr Ross was again the Conservative candidate, this time losing to the SNP’s Richard Lochhead by just under 3,000 votes.
Although he did not win the Holyrood constituency seat in 2016, Mr Ross almost doubled his vote share on the 2011 Holyrood election, when he had again taken on Mr Lochhead in the first past the post system.
The number of times Mr
“It was notable only Tories saw an increased vote share”
Ross has stood for election in the area, his current position as a Highlands and Islands list MSP and party justice spokesman, and his controversial second job as one of Scotland’s top referees, all go in his favour in terms of name recognition.
Support for the Scottish Conservatives in the council elections earlier this month also shows signs of growth for the party.
Although council elec- tions use the single transferable vote system, which gives smaller parties a bigger chance of getting candidates elected, it was notable how only the Tories saw an increased vote share.
Conservatives in Moray more than doubled their number of councillors from three to eight, ending up with one less councillor than the SNP.
Moray Council has continued its IndependentConservative administration, which has led since 2007, despite the SNP having the most councillors of any party. However, several factors may also lead to Mr Robertson hanging onto his job.
Mr Robertson has the advantage of incumbency having been the constituency MP for 16 years.
The SNP deputy leader also maintains a high profile, not least with his weekly opportunity to quiz Theresa May at PMQs as the leader of the third biggest party at Westminster.
Mr Robertson’s party may be the third biggest, but his performances at PMQs have been praised for outshining UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose personal approval ratings continue to drag.
The SNP has long said Labour’s internal fighting has left their party the only opposition at Westminster. Certainly, Scottish Labour candidate Sean Morton won just under one in 10 Moray votes in 2015, leaving the party’s new candidate Jo Kirby with an uphill struggle this time.