Visionary Leonard

In Richard Leonard, Scotttish Labour have found a leader with the policies and vision to improve the lives of us Scots and end the divisiveness we have seen over the last ten years of SNP control.

Learning from the Brexit referendum, where the votes of the millions of people whose lives have been left behind swung the outcome, commentators are now saying that the 2014 independence referendum did not see a nationalist surge.

Instead, people were handed the opportunity of turning away from a neoliberal state committed to austerity for the next ten years and came very close to succeeding.

Richard Leonard has policies which will resonate across Scotland, to tackle the scourges of our age – poverty, inequality, lack of affordable housing and a crumbling NHS. Scotland needs radical change, tinkering round the edges just won’t work.

He is committed to controlling rents and a massive house building programme.

The insecurity of zero hours contracts has to end. Austerity has proved to be a disaster for the country. Instead of eliminating the budget deficit, austerity crashed the economy and the national debt is now more than double what it was seven years ago.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has warned of a massive slowdown in the economy over the next few years under austerity policies, which is why the Chancellor could offer only tinkering in his budget – there is no money left.

Changes are also needed to the tax system to tackle inequality. Under the Tories the rich have got richer and the poor poorer. Taxes for the rich have been reduced, but VAT and national insurance for the poorest have gone up.

Even the IMF has announced that it agrees with Labour that taxing the rich moderately more heavily will not damage the economy.

The SNP tax policies favouring the rich, no higher rate tax increase beyond the band adjustment and cutting air passenger duty for those who can afford to fly, have passed their sell-by date and give a lie to any idea that the SNP are a socialist party.

PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh