Education is at heart of family party’s campaign
Scrapping Curriculum for Excellence is vital, says Martin
Renfrewshire residents will hit the polls on May 6 to elect the region’s new MSPs for the next five years.
Today, the Express speaks to Martin Bell of the Scottish Family Party, who is seeking election in Renfrewshire North and West.
Scottish Family Party ( SFP) candidate Martin Bell is hoping his party’s campaign to scrap Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) will attract voters across Renfrewshire North and West.
The region will have a new MSP for the first time in a decade in a fortnight’s time after it was confirmed shamed ex-SNP politician Derek Mackay would not contest the seat for a third time.
And Mr Bell believes the SFP will appeal to voters who are undecided about how to mark their ballot paper.
The pro-life party was formed around four years ago and has policies that include increasing child benefit payments, introducing council tax cuts for parents, repealing the smacking ban, promoting marriage and restricting abortions.
At the heart of the group’s campaign is a fight to overhaul the CfE, which was introduced as Scotland’s national curriculum for pupils aged three to 18 in 2010.
Mr Bell, who is a dad-of-three, said he feels there is a major issue with children not being taught memory skills.
“There is a big problem with the way the curriculum fundamentally works,” said
Mr Bell, who works as a window cleaner across Renfrewshire.
“I noticed it with my son, who is now in S1, but was in P4 at the time I came across the SFP.
“He was doing his maths work and he was telling us he doesn’t need to know his times tables anymore.
“We asked the teacher at one of the meetings and she said they don’t enforce it.
“The times tables are fundamental and you need them planted in your head for further education.
“Then when he was in P5, I found he was doing the same maths work as the year before and he didn’t know his ABCs. He was getting words alphabetically wrong.
“I found the SFP when I was searching about the curriculum and saw them complaining about it.
“Education matters for everyone, it doesn’t matter what age group you are in. We’ve got a generation of kids who don’t have memorising skills, so we want to scrap this curriculum.”
This is the party’s first election campaign, with candidates standing in all the regions of Scotland.
Mr Bell admitted it would be foolish for the party to think it can win any constituency seats so early on in its existence, with its focus mainly on winning votes on the regional list.
But the 52-year-old does think there is a fight to be had in Renfrewshire North and West following the scandal with Mr Mackay at the start of last year.
And he has his eyes firmly set on the large chunk of the electorate who opted not to vote in 2016.
“This area has been hugely let down by Derek Mackay and the SNP,” added Mr Bell.
“The people of Renfrewshire North and West should feel really aggrieved by what’s happened and I do think this is a seat which could swing.
“We’d be silly to think we can win a constituency being as new as we are, but
I hope that by getting the word out we’ll get some support because I think our message will resonate with a lot of people.
“There’s an interesting statistic in that 40 per cent of registered voters didn’t vote in the last election, and that’ll be because there was either no candidate for them or they didn’t think they could make a difference.
“I want those people to vote because there is someone out there who will represent them this time and I want to stand up for the people who have been forgotten about.
“Because of the Derek Mackay situation, this constituency is really up in the air.”
Having worked across Renfrewshire for the past 24 years, Mr Bell believes he has a good knowledge of the problems residents have in Renfrewshire North and West, which also stretches over to eastern parts of Inverclyde.
And he insists the SFP is there for those disillusioned by the current political conversations.
Mr Bell said: “I have about 600 clients across Renfrewshire so I feel as if I know people and I agree with 80 per cent of them, who are like me.
“People are fed up with politicians and feel something’s got to change. The current parties campaign for the wideright and the wide-left, and the middle ground has been forgotten about.
“We want stable, healthy families who are well-supported because we’re seeing plenty of families who are not getting the help they need.
“And none of the other parties have any idea how to tackle education and get it back to how it used to be. We do.”