Biography

I have lodged papers to stand as an independent candidate in the North East Scotland Region.  I have been endorsed by the Independent Network, the Richard Taylor and Martin Bell (former MP in the white suit) backed national organisation for independent candidates.

I am aged 62 and am a former Immigration Officer and Vice Chairman of the Immigration Service Union.  More recently, I worked in local government as a tenant participation officer.  I am married to Elinor, a Support for Learning teacher in the Primary sector.

I am targeting my campaign at those who are fed up with party politics, those who want an alternative voice and those Lib Dem voters who feel deeply aggrieved and betrayed by their leaders in the coalition.

Main Issues

Local Government.  I am seeking to reduce the number of local authorities in Scotland from the current 32 to a more manageable number of regions which would cover the areas more or less currently covered by Scottish Police Authorities.  This would result in a considerable reduction of first and second tier officers whilst maintaining front line services. 

Health - I would like to see all possible resources put into reducing NHS waiting times. I am not convinced that free prescriptions for all are necessary or affordable.  I would prefer to see some sort of scale of charges depending on household income and subject to a maximum total charge per prescription order 

Education - While I promote local accountability, I would support and campaign for Education to be administered at Scottish national level as opposed to local or regional.  I believe this would lead to a much more focused approach and give consistency and continuity throughout the country. Many children change school and so it is vital that they are able to transfer without worries about new systems as the current arrangement allows for individual schools to use whatever teaching resource the particular Head Teacher fancies.  Consequently, children who transfer their school are placed in an unacceptably vulnerable position if they are expected to cope with a completely new method of teaching with which they are totally unfamiliar.  I am convinced that a national education service, with the inevitable senior management savings this would bring, would be more likely to safeguard local village primary schools which are often the only community facility within the area.

I would campaign to scrap the curriculum for excellence policy currently being proposed.  It is an ill thought out policy which, in my mind, positively damages children's education.  Kids would be experiencing their very first national exam in 5^th year, a totally daunting and traumatic prospect for them all.  Other kids would leave after 4^th year with a school certificate.  Just how many employers would be prepared to accept this?  Would they be differentiating between “good schools” “and not so good schools”?  Where on earth is the justification for this?

Scotland has a long and proud history of providing free university education for its students.  I regard this as sacrosanct and would campaign vociferously to give free higher education to Scottish students.  Regarding other students, I am of the opinion that we should be welcoming  our fellow UK students and trying, as far as possible, to cap the current level of fees or restrict any increase to a minimum.

Constitution.  I am wholly supportive of Scotland as an integral part of the United Kingdom.  However, I believe there is room for further devolution to the Scottish Parliament and would support any measures to bring this about.

Justice.   I would campaign  to ensure that community service programmes are properly enforced, that the public are regularly and openly aware of them.

Crime.  I would maintain community police teams.  However, I am against the current Scottish Government plans to reduce the number of Police Forces to a single national force as I believe local accountability is crucial.

Transport.  I am in favour of scrapping the Edinburgh tram system unless, financially, it would prove too expensive to do so.  We have a perfectly good rail line that runs both to the North and East of the runway at Edinburgh Airport and surely to goodness a station, or even two stations, could be built in these areas to provide a bus or monorail link to the terminal.  Not everyone using the airport wishes to go into central Edinburgh.  I would also be in favour of establishing a link rail service between Aberdeen and Prestwick Airports via Glasgow Airport.  This would include a link to Edinburgh Airport.  However, something must surely be done to improve rail links between East and West coasts to avoid the need to change stations in Glasgow.   Upgrading the A9 all the way to Inverness should be a priority and so is the need for a new Forth road bridge crossing. I support both these initiatives.

Foreign Policy - This is not a devolved matter.  However, if asked, I would have to say I have reservations about Britain's initial reaction to events in Libya.  Why can't Britain wait to be asked by the UN or Nato to get involved in foreign engagements instead of constantly sticking our nose in?  It is quite right for William Hague to express concerns over the current situation in Syria but we ought to wait for an invitation from Nato or the UN before becoming directly involved.

Economy - 1p off a litre of fuel?  As one commentator put it, "that's rich!"  It costs people £50 - £70 to fill up.  Are we supposed to be grateful for 50 or 70p off our weekly or fortnightly bill?  If the Chancellor had come out and said he wasn't going to reduce the tax level further because he wanted to encourage people to use public transport more, I might have had more respect for him.   The Lib Dems succeeded in delivering lower business rates in Scotland to below levels in the rest of the UK and I would seek to maintain this policy.  Similarly, I would seek to ensure that fuel distributors keep their costs in remote areas no higher than those in city areas. Income Tax is an area of current debate.  Whilst I am not convinced that a local income tax levied by a local authority is desirable or even workable, I do feel there is room for the Scottish Parliament to raise taxes to deliver new policies or to maintain existing ones, given the cuts that are currently being thrust upon us by the Westminster Government.

Defence – I am in favour of Scotland being a non nuclear country.  I would obviously campaign for the retention of both RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Leuchars. However, given that both these locations lie very near to the boundaries of the North East Region and inevitably have an effect on residents within the region, if I were to be asked which one I would choose for closure as an RAF base, I would have to say RAF Leuchars.  There are two reasons for this – one is that RAF Kinloss has already been condemned and the impact of yet another major closure in the area would be truly devastating for the local economy with little prospect of attracting other defence or business operations.  RAF Leuchars, on the other hand, would at least present an opportunity for continuing as a defence base for returning army personnel from overseas operations or, if that were not considered viable, the airport would offer a realistic development opportunity as a civil airport, as has already been investigated by one low cost airline.  The nearest civil airport to Leuchars is situated in my home city of Dundee but I have never felt that this was a realistically viable operation right from the start, which is no doubt why this airport has continually struggled to attract new services.  It is absolutely imperative that an RAF airbase remain in this area and if it has to be reduced to only one, then Lossiemouth should survive over Leuchars.

Energy – Renewables seems to be the buzz word at the moment.  People tend to be fervently for or against.  I have to say, when I attended the hustings as a candidate for the Westminster Parliament last year, I was absolutely against the prospect of a Biomass Renewable Plant situated on the Eastern waterfront at Dundee.  I was against it for two reasons, one, that it would present an eyesore to the overlooking residents at a time when the local council were promising to return the waterfront to the people and two, that I was not convinced that there were no health implications for people living in the vicinity.  I was a fairly lone political voice at that time but, in my opinion fortunately, the local council delayed a decision pending further information on the health risks.   Just recently, I saw an artist's impression of the proposal and, I have to be honest, I did not think it had the unsightly impact that I was led to believe it had.  However, that leaves the question of health and that still has to be answered.  I could not support such a venture until I was absolutely satisfied that there absolutely no health implications for surrounding residents.

Wind farms are also proving to be very controversial.  My own view is that our green areas are sacrosanct and should remain so.  Any land based wind farms ought to be based on brownfield sites. Off shore wind farms are, if you pardon the expression, a different kettle of fish.  I see no problem in installing these beyond the horizon where they would not be seen from the shore and as long as they were sited so that they did not constitute a danger to shipping.

Agriculture – I am committed to doing everything I possibly can to protect tenant farming which encompasses a huge amount of our farmland.  I will be seeking to expand secure tenancies for tenant farmers as part of a review of existing legislation.  Otherwise, “our lands will remain in the hands of the few who are the existing farming businesses or the super rich” as stated by the Chairman of the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association, Angus McCall.

Fisheries -  I am adamant that Scottish waters should be for Scottish fishermen and I will do everything I can to promote this policy.  I am also appalled at the current requirements whereby dead fish are thrown back into the sea because they don't satisfy size  regulations.

Housing – I am increasingly worried by the current policies which allow anti social tenants to be evicted from social landlords' property and then offered rehousing as homeless applicants by Local Authorities.  Some tenants are simply incapable of maintaining a tenancy on their own and this has to be recognised.  As a society we need to ensure that tenants are given the best possible support to ensure they can maintain the tenancy.  Persistent failure to do so ought to result in placements in supervised accommodation where a programme of probation and rehabilitation would be introduced.  Vetting processes need to be tightened up considerably so that receiving social landlords, apart from being sent a reference from the current landlord, would visit the proposed tenant to make a separate assessment regarding the physical maintenance of their tenancy.

Communities -  As a former local government officer who was deeply involved in local communities and their aspirations, I am hugely supportive of meaningful consultation as well as positive engagement with and reaction to local opinion.  Neither Government, local authorities nor any public bodies should attempt to ignore, deceive or mislead local communities but should actively promote inclusion from the beginning of any proposal or policy change in any sphere, whether in the opinion of the initiating body it directly or indirectly affects the community or not.  Decisions which affect communities should not be made in secret with no community participation.  

To sum up -  I hope that what I have said has indicated to you that I am my own man. That said, one of the aims of the Independent Network by whom I have been endorsed is that I listen to the points put forward by my constituents.  This I would seek to do by holding regular surgeries in towns throughout the North East Region which do not have an MSP presence.  I do hope you like what I have to say and that you will use your second vote to vote for me on the Regional (Peach coloured) List.