BLACK It’s an honour to represent you
BY PAISLEY AND RENFREWSHIRE SOUTH MP MHAIRI BLACK
I want to start off by saying thank you to everyone who voted for the SNP in last Thursday’s General Election.
With a share of 50.2 per cent of the vote I cannot thank the people of Renfrewshire enough for voting for Scotland’s right to choose our own future.
It is the honour of my life to be the Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South and I can’t wait to get stuck back in to my work.
A huge amount of praise has to go to all of the SNP activists who have been out and about Paisley, Johnstone and the villages in the cold and the rain over the last six weeks.
Without our local SNP support, this election result would not be possible in what was, until a few years ago, a Labour heartland.
The penny has dropped in Renfrewshire however and the energy and enthusiasm of our SNP activists is incredible.
Thank you, all of you, for the hard work you have displayed in freezing conditions for our future.
The Conservatives ran with one policy in Scotland, ‘Say No to IndyRef2’ and they were soundly beaten. While they may have won a significant number of seats in England, they lost more than half their seats in Scotland.
Across the UK, the Tories won 57 per cent of the seats they stood in whereas the SNP won 81 per cent of the seats that we stood in.
It is even clearer now after this election that there is a mandate for a Scottish Independence referendum.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will now seek a section 30 order from Boris Johnson’s UK Government. We are under no illusion that Boris and the Tories will display their usual arrogance when faced with Scottish issues and look to reject the request.
I would advise the Conservatives against this move as the people of Scotland have already decided that we should have the right to choose our own future.
If Boris Johnson thinks he has a mandate for Brexit after the results of last week’s election, then the SNP clearly have another mandate for an independence referendum.
What a year it has been.
Politically, 2019 has been one of the most intense years in recent memory, and that’s saying something when you look at any year in the past five.
When the year started, we had a different Prime Minister, running a minority government with the backing of the DUP. We finish it with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, holding a massive majority delivered to him by seats that had never before voted Tory since their establishment.
The result of the election is still sinking in, but I want to take this chance to once again say thank you to everyone who placed their trust in me, for the third time, to represent them in Westminster.
But for now, we should all be able to take a rest and focus on spending time with our families and friends.
Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but it’s easy to forget that for some, it can be the hardest time of the year.
If you have any neighbours or people around you who will be alone at Christmas, please consider dropping in on them – it can really brighten their day.