Why Scotland needs Reform

FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS Scotland has endured high spending and declining outcomes under successive governments in Holyrood.

Despite record government expenditure, hard-working families face rising costs, failing public services and stagnant economic growth.

Reform UK offers a bold alternative: a radical overhaul to cut waste, lower taxes, boost private enterprise and restore our healthcare, education and infrastructure to being the best in the world.

Our mission is simple: to halt the relentless punishment of aspiration and success, instead delivering opportunity and prosperity for everyone in Scotland.

The election on May 7th is a clear-cut choice between two parties:

• another five years of SNP stagnation and decline

• or a vote for change with Reform

Reform UK is a true grassroots phenomenon in Scotland, having risen almost out of nowhere in just the last few years to be consistently second in the polls; this momentum gives Reform the best chance of turfing out the SNP.

The party now has 12,500 members in Scotland made up of ordinary, decent, hardworking people who are fed up with the way Holyrood has been run, and who are determined to fight for change.

Their vision, and my vision, is of a Scotland where people who do the right thing get rewarded, not punished.

Of a Scotland where work is respected and well paid; where welfare is a safety net, not a lifestyle choice; where the NHS delivers the best outcomes in the UK for patients; where education is worldclass; where housing is affordable for everyone; where our local communities are cohesive and where our economy thrives, creating wealth for all.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

We were promised a country like that by the architects of devolution in 1999.

But for the last twenty years, the SNP have created a welfare economy which punishes aspiration and success.

They have presided over an NHS that 93 per cent of Scots think needs major reform.

They have traduced our revered education system from outstanding to average.

There are chronic shortages of affordable housing such that councils across the country are declaring housing emergencies.

They have allowed strangers to be prioritised ahead of Scots, welcoming uncontrolled immigration from the rest of the UK.

And they have supported net zero resulting in our energy prices being seven times those of China and four times those of the US, de-industrialising our country that once hummed to the sound of machinery, the once beating heart of the Industrial Revolution.

AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE

But it doesn’t need to be this way!

Scotland has all the natural resources to be the most successful part of the United Kingdom, starting with our very own silver bullet: our people.

250 years ago, Scots created the modern world through the industry and imagination of our scientists, inventors, philosophers, writers, economists and entrepreneurs.

The steam engine, the television, the telephone, the pneumatic tyre, penicillin, the MRI scanner, tarmac, the radar, the flush toilet and the ATM are just some of the legacies of our creative and innovative people, at a time when Scotland consistently punched above its weight in the world.

Today, Scotland still possesses incredible people in business, in science and technology, in education and in healthcare.

We are not maximising that extraordinary talent because the SNP have punished hard work and aspiration by raising taxes to pay for their own ideological vanity projects.

Reform will unleash Scotland’s great potential by restoring incentives for hard work, productivity, entrepreneurship and community building, core values that once made Scotland great.

A NEW ECONOMY

Scotland is blessed with a number of business sectors where we are genuinely world class owing to our geography, science and people.

These 10 natural clusters of excellence comprise: Financial Services, Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Food & Drink, Tourism & Hospitality, Creative Industries, Life Sciences, Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine.

It’s time now to focus our resources in education, skills and training around these 10 clusters to get our young people and our adults tooled up for this new, modern economy where they can earn well above the minimum wage and create prosperity for themselves, their families and their communities.

As leader of Reform UK in Scotland, I’m proud to put my name to this ambitious manifesto, which will build a new economy for the benefit of all, giving Scots a meaningful chance to lead the world once again!

This is a section from Reform UK’s Manifesto for Scotland. We will be publishing edited extracts over the coming days.