Scottish Elections 2011

Congratulations SNP on a great election result. Congratulations for being the most enthusiastic and hard working people out there for the past two months. Congratulations also for all the honesty, intelligence and determination shown in the work done by those previously elected in national and council elections because the trust shown in this party is utterly down to their hard work over the years.

This is an amazing event in Scotland and none of the detractors can ever deny that. Their hope was always that the SNP would fall into all the power traps of the other parties and the electorate would abandon them soon enough. In the strong hands of Alex Salmond the opposite has happened. In spite of the most severe economic crisis, the people of Scotland have overwhelmingly shown that they have trust in allowing the SNP to carry the country through this time.

Typically Alex started right off with a speech that brought the other parties into the political arena rather than shutting them out of the proceedings. This willingness to talk and include in a positive way is the number one reason for the switch in the electorate. People have been telling the other parties for years that they were sick and tired of the political backstabbing and rhetoric. Only the SNP have shown themselves to actually be mature enough to deserve to be in government. If the rest of the UK parties behaved as responsible adults, the results could well have been quite different.

The main policies outlined in Alex’s speech are those designed to give more real power to our devolved Scottish Parliament. The arguments rage over the effects that the changes will mean to the Scottish taxpayer. There will obviously be costs involved in the implementation of a new system. From my own point of view, Scotland becoming autonomous has to be worth it. We have long seen all our precious money being sucked into the Westminster purse. I have always said I would never give my wage packet to my neighbour and ask them to dish out my cash and give me what she thinks I need to live on. It will be a source of pride for our nation to have our power back at last.

With special reference to our construction industry, Alex acknowledges Labour’s support in asking for the power to raise the extra cash Scotland needs to get her economy moving again. The current restrictions mean that our ‘overlords’ still hold the purse strings even though we, as a nation, have emphatically rejected their management of our economy.

Currently, Scottish Ministers have no powers to raise extra resources by borrowing or sanctioning borrowing. ‘Borrowing sanctioned by Scottish Ministers is included within the Scottish Administration's Assigned Budget and must be offset by reductions in other spending.’

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/spfm/borrowingetc

An even greater fight lies ahead in regaining the control of our land and sea resources from the Crown Estate Commission. The support of the Lib Dems in this is welcomed. It is time for us to ensure we have the benefit of our vast renewable wealth of offshore resources after the long years of the theft of our oil and gas reserves.

A report by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and six local authorities in the region said: “There are relatively few public benefits in Scotland from the way these Scottish resources are managed at present, most notably the Crown Estate Commission’s management of Scotland’s territorial seabed and continental shelf rights and approximately half of Scotland’s foreshore.

“The very limited accountability in Scotland over the management of these Scottish resources has also become worse since devolution.”

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/scotland-takes-step-closer-to-controlling-her-seas-1.1077591

All parties are convinced that we need to devolve corporation tax to keep our industries competitive. I doubt that Westminster can hold that back from us for very long now.

The SNP all want the very best for Scotland but they will have to become as good as our Scottish tennis hero, Andy Murray, at deflecting the media and political parties’ ridiculous focus on independence and the referendum back to the important issues that we are currently working on.

As far as independence goes, I think we have a long hard journey ahead before we can prove to the Scottish people that she is ready for that move.

‘Yes’, I want independence for Scotland with every fibre of my being and ‘Yes’ I am utterly delighted to see the trust Scotland has put in the party that stands for independence. But, personally, I think we have still to prove to a great number of people that we have all the resources we need to go it alone.

We also have to bring the Central Belt on board with that dream. So far they have just started to show a bit of faith in the possibility.

If our elected members can navigate the troubled waters ahead and take us into the next election with pride and confidence in their achievements, I would say we will be a long way towards getting the dream result. Until then, we have to find a way to make clear to the media and the troublemaker’s that their focus on that question is boring, bullying and that the people of Scotland see right through their tactics.