For practically 20 years, Scots have been informed their nation will fail so long as it’s a part of the Union.
We’ve additionally been informed – endlessly – that Scotland someway isn’t ‘regular’ as a result of it’s not impartial.
The UK Authorities has been portrayed as a panto villain intent on depriving us of the affluent future we deserve.
No alternative has been missed to foment division and drive house the poisonous (and false) proposition that Scotland is failing – due to the Union.
On July 4, voters will get the prospect to ship a robust message to the SNP
Since 2007 – and positively because the 2014 referendum – a doom-laden narrative of defeat has been churned out by the SNP because it agitated for the break-up of Britain.
On one degree, in fact, it’s proper: failure is a given – however solely so long as the Nationalists are in cost, they usually’ve been ruling the roost at Holyrood for a lot too lengthy.
They inform us (on a regular basis) that independence provides an escape route, however we’re the place we’re – within the financial doldrums, with public companies in a downward spiral – not due to the Union however due to the SNP.
As soon as it’s out of energy, there might be a giant restore job to do however among the harm is sure to be psychological, after practically 20 years of being informed we’re captives of a malign state, our self-confidence as a nation has taken a knock.
The SNP informed us we might accomplish that a lot better with out the Union, when actually we might so a lot better with out the SNP.
A mixture of real incompetence (in abundance) and a concentrate on stirring up cross-Border disputes meant a slide in academic requirements and policing and the NHS in decline, with a dysfunctional, high-tax, low-growth economic system.
Scotland fell sufferer to that agenda – ‘have a look at how terrible all the things is, and it’s all of the Tories’ fault’ – however doable liberation is on the horizon, not from the UK however from corrosive nationalism.
July 4 might be a chance to loosen the death-grip of the SNP and underline the truth that we’re not an irregular nation. We do have huge potential and we are able to drive Scotland ahead to prosperity – however we are able to’t hope to show the tanker round with the SNP on the wheel.
It’s unimaginable to argue that the Tory marketing campaign thus far has been something apart from a fiasco, filled with unforced errors.
Tv debates, once they did point out Scotland, usually gave John Swinney and his colleagues a straightforward journey, partly as a result of the Tories’ a number of woes have dominated the headlines.
Yesterday, the Scottish Tory manifesto set out a imaginative and prescient for change and a collection of eminently smart insurance policies – however what it mainly provides is a means out of the snake-oil charlatanism of bankrupt nationalism.
It’s mild years from the statism and the constitutional monomania of the SNP’s personal depressing, threadbare manifesto final week, which contained a dedication to independence in its first line.
One of the vital engaging facets of the Tory plan is just the dedication to fixing the nation – a serious clean-up train to undo among the harm wrought by the SNP.
The rediscovery of competence in authorities is a needed precursor to any sweeping reform. Importantly, the Tories promise to decrease the present 21p intermediate charge of revenue tax to 20p, and to decrease revenue tax charges to the identical because the UK in the long term.
The disparity which has made Scotland essentially the most closely taxed a part of the UK is a drain on development and a disincentive for younger professionals, a lot of whom are both packing up and heading for the exit, or have already gone.
The Tories additionally pledge 75 per cent charges aid to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in Scotland – which is obtainable by the UK Authorities in England however denied to companies right here.
Different clever priorities embrace preserving quango spending below management and opposing the roll-out of Low Emission Zones, which make city centres no-go areas for Scots who can’t afford expensive electrical vehicles.
And the Tories suggest a assure that every one pupils ought to have the chance to review at the very least seven topics in S4 – a response to legit concern about how pupils at completely different colleges can research for various numbers of {qualifications}.
There’s additionally a promise to reform the SNP’s Curriculum for Excellence to usher in a extra ‘knowledge-based strategy’.
It’s miserable that ‘knowledge-based’ training has disappeared below the SNP, but it surely must be reinstituted for the sake of pupils whose futures are at stake.
On justice, the Tories are demanding extra bobbies on the beat and a reformed Scottish Sentencing Council.
It’s the barmy quango arrange by the SNP Authorities whose pointers urge leniency for criminals below the age of 25 – on the grounds of their allegedly immature brains.
The pledges for a discount within the dimension of the devolved civil service and a lift for the personal sector workforce are lengthy overdue and would assist to bolster development, with the proceeds ploughed into the NHS and training.
True, a lot of this prospectus pertains to what could be achieved within the Scottish parliament relatively than Westminster – but it surely units out the framework of what the Tories might obtain by successful the Holyrood election in 2026.
Scots have been cajoled into accepting the SNP’s self-serving story about their very own nation’s failures, however most of us are sick of it and have been for years.
The Nationalists have weighed us down with a crippling tax regime and turned their reverse Midas contact on each space of public life, leaving a path of carnage behind it, with the taxpayer choosing up the invoice.
The SNP is the topic of an ongoing police fraud probe which has seen its former chief govt Peter Murrell charged in reference to alleged embezzlement of SNP funds.
His spouse, ex-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – sometimes out on the stump when she’s not writing her memoir – continues to be topic to investigation after being arrested final yr then launched with out cost.
In 2021, the entrance cowl of the SNP manifesto was emblazoned with a picture of a beaming Ms Sturgeon below the heading ‘Scotland’s Future’.
It is a celebration which asks us to belief it with managing public funds whereas failing to spend practically £300million which might have been put to good use, however is dismissed by the SNP as a ‘modest’ underspend.
All it will probably supply is extra of the identical, however we shouldn’t settle for its force-fed propaganda concerning the panacea of independence.
On July 4, voters will get the prospect to ship a robust message to the SNP – nationalism has run its course as a result of Scots have seen via the lies and distortions which have held our nation again for 17 years.
