An exciting g new future lies within our grasp
Bob Doris MSP: An exciting new future is within our grasp.
“Our community led movement to deliver a Yes vote has swept away all the old and tired notions previously connected to politics.
The efforts, energy and vision from individuals and communities right across Scotland has shown us all just what our country could achieve if independent.
This grassroots campaign, significantly, has set out their vision of what an independent Scotland could be.
The unifying principle is that the people of Scotland should always get the Government they choose. That is the essence of democracy. Those who care the most about Scotland are those who live here. Unlike the Tory government of the time which Scots overwhelmingly hadn’t voted for, an independent Scottish Government would never have decimated our nation’s industrial heartlands in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Scottish Government has provided much certainty: Safe and secure pensions, rising by at least 2.5 per cent each year. A minimum wage rising by at least the rate of inflation, unlike the UK, and the promotion of a living wage.
It will halt the attack on the most vulnerable, ditching the plans the NO parties have to target 102,000 disabled Scots. It will end the bedroom tax and reliance on food banks.
It will dramatically extend childcare. And, yes - despite the bully, bluff and bluster from the NO campaign, we will continue to use the pound.
Scotland is in a strong position. After independence we will be the 14th most wealthyy nation in the world (the UK would be 18th). The Financial Times agrees.
In the last five years we paid £8.3billion more to the UK than we got back. However it’s about how we choose to use that wealth and tackle inequalities.
A Yes vote means a society that prioritises spending on schools and hospitals and not £100 billion on Trident. A society that invests in our NHS, not privatise it as is happening in England.
Contrast all that with the Westminster spending cuts and benefits cap that all the UK parties have promised to implement.
As we approach polling day an exciting vision has been laid out for an Independent Scotland.
That vision has been forged not by politicians alone but by the people of Scotland, and with every single person that switches to Yes, that vision becomes stronger and more achievable.
An exciting new future is within our grasp and it all starts with a Yes vote on September 18th.”