Scottish Parliament By-Election 2019 / Ian Scott
Independent – Fight Austerity
I am standing for Holyrood because I believe that this is a golden opportunity for Shetland to tell the established parties that a really profound change is needed.
The austerity programme that has been enthusiastically supported by the Lib Dems – in particular Jo Swinson, Alistair Carmichael and Tavish Scott – must stop.
Our problems stem directly from the Tory/Lib Dem austerity rampage that has paralysed our country since 2010. Brexit exists because of the vicious, callous assaults on our services, our welfare state and our very way of life, and has created millions of desperate, despairing people.
In these situations people tend to see salvation in extreme politics, thus the rise of the far right, the neo fascists and Farage. Here we have it – the Lib Dems bragging that the very crisis that they created is the very one they are going to solve. The US voted Trump.
Don’t be mislead – whenever the DUP get the tricky end of Boris Johnson – Swinson, Carmichael, et al, will be more than happy to jump in with their wealthy, public school educated friends again, with the forlorn hope that the voting system might be changed.
I have been the only councillor to vote against the £15 million cut in our budget …. I repeat, the only councillor. And if elected … you can rest assured I will never, ever tell a “blatant lie” to save my skin.
Any young person daft enough to be voting for Jo Swinson’s party, should note that she religiously voted against increased spending on youth job creation, she voted to increase the tax limit for her wealthy friends and quite proudly proclaimed that Margaret Thatcher should have a statue erected in her honour … say no more.
The Lib Dems are not the only culprits in this game. Our SNP government in Edinburgh, whilst talking boldly, has done nothing other than manage austerity, not fight it.
Admittedly small resistance has been shown, but for the SNP to claim that care for the elderly is provided free of charge is at best disingenuous. Tell our elderly, who have had to sell their houses and see any savings dwindled, it’s free.
And to those people who do not vote, those disillusioned and despairing, and to those who do not give a toss, I ask you to give me your vote, for in 10 years time when you go to get your hip replaced, or your knee sorted, you will find ‘yes certainly you can have the operation and it will cost you tens of thousands of pounds …. oh, and by the way, that will be £20 consultation fee’.
Many years ago as a student, if someone had even suggested that there would be no grants for students, tuition fees would be charged, and that our National Health Service would rely heavily on agency staff, I would have laughed at them.
Sadly my generation blinked. We got Thatcher and now we have Boris and Swinson, let’s not blink again.
Ian Scott
Phone: 01595 880532
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