Election letters 2019 / A great advert for the SNP
The departure of Tavish Scott as our local MSP certainly seems to have taken the local Lib Dem campaign team by surprise – they’ve been left unable to fact check Mr Scott’s supposed list of achievements in his final leaflet to constituents.
Mr Scott claims credit for fairer NHS funding for the area – but by refusing to take part in annual budget negotiations at Holyrood, Mr Scott ensured that he had absolutely no role in securing over £50 Million of funding for NHS Shetland this year.
In fact since the SNP took over from the Lib Dems at Holyrood, we’ve seen the number of people working in Shetlands NHS grow by 25 per cent – equivalent to an extra 118 full time members of staff.
The leaflet brazenly claims Tavish Scott also delivered more funding for our schools. Yet it was, again, the SNP government, not Mr Scott, that has invested a massive £37.2 million in refurbishing schools in Shetland since 2007 – including the bulk of funding for the new Anderson High School.
And it is the SNP that will invest £500 million to double the free provision of childcare for all three and four year olds by next August – saving young families here in Shetland over £4,500 a year in childcare costs.
Tavish Scott also claims to have achieved improved connectivity for our islands.
Today over 85 per cent of premises in Shetland have access to fibre broadband. Remarkable when you remember that the Lib Dems failed to take any action on this during their time in power at Holyrood and while in coalition with the Tories in Westminster.
Unsurprisingly, it was also the SNP government that slashed the cost of travelling by air to the islands to 50 per cent in 2015, helping Loganair to take control of many of the routes, not the Lib Dems.
I could go on, but I think this offers readers a taste of the latest Lib Dem propaganda that will find its way through your letterbox in the coming days. If anything, it’s a great advert for the SNP.
Peter Malcolmson
Lerwick
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