Scottish Green Party General Election 2015 Manifesto

At last it's here. The Scottish Green Party today launched it's General Election 2015 manifesto. As was expected it is full of very good policy and worth a read to anyone thinking of voting for The Green Party in Scotland on May 7th. In fact I would go as far to say that it is worth a read for anybody voting for any party in the 2015 General Election.

It may just surprise you how many of the Scottish Green policies you actually agree with. Just click the image below and have a read.

What's Important?

EQUALITY NOT POVERTY – £10 minimum wage

PUBLIC SERVICES IN PUBLIC HANDS – nationalise the railways

POWER TO COMMUNITIES – more powers for Scotland and local communities 

Scottish Affairs Committee - Our Borderlands, Our Future

A great piece on a recent report from the Scottish Affairs Committee by Sarah Beattie Smith our Westminster candidate for Edinburgh North & Leith.

"In the last days of this parliament came one of the most interesting and useful reports I’ve seen in five years of the Scottish Affairs Committee. Our Borderlands, Our Future sets out a vision for the South of Scotland that tackles the lack of jobs with decent wages and calls for much better connectivity, whether public transport or broadband..."

https://sarahbeattiesmith.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/time-to-transform-the-forgotten-south/

Mr. Cameron Won't Serve A Third Term As Prime Minister

In a interview today with the BBC, David Cameron, the United Kingdom Prime Minister, has said that he will not serve a third term as the head of the United Kingdom government.

My first, probably flippant, thought was "Is that a threat or a promise?" but my second thought immediately after was "I really don't want you serving a second". What was more worrying is that Mr Cameron tipped Theresa May, George Osborne and Boris Johnson as possible successors.

Whilst I can see the arrogance and presumptive nature of this interview it occurs to me there are some other worrying factors in a statement like this. We are heading slowly but surely towards the American style of politics, a place where I do not wish our nation to go.

The United Kingdom - A Democracy When It Suits The Establishment?

It appears the true nature of the United Kingdom and the Establishment have been appearing in the last few days. The above photograph is from today's Andrew Marr Show on the BBC where Anna Soubry tells Alex Salmond,

"Your plans fill me with absolute horror."

During the whole piece Anna Soubry basically goes on a rant about Alex Salmond, the SNP and indeed the Scots and their role in the possible outcomes in the coming General Election. Andrew Marr and Alex Salmond hardly are able to get a word in edge ways. A link to the piece:

https://t.co/G9ktCHxfcb

South Scotland Region Hustings - Ayr Town Hall

A great bunch of candidates and a difficult decision for the members in deciding who to pick as their representatives for the Holyrood South Scotland Region list.

I'm still looking for members to consider me for their vote as lead candidate. If you do consider me for your lead candidate, I promise you that I will work tirelessly for and on behalf of the residents of South Scotland and you can be assured that the causes of the Scottish Green Party will never be far from the spotlight if I'm elected as an MSP. 

An Economic Nonsense - "We've Taken More People Out Of Tax"

As we all recover from The Chancellor of The Exchequer's final budget of this Parliament, people far more qualified than me can analyse it to death. Individual people can try and figure out if they are better or worse off. This, of course, proves extremely difficult, as as with most sets of figures and statistics you can get "experts" to speak to completely opposite opinions. Whether the "ordinary person" in the street is better off or not, with some opinions saying "we" are £900 better off and with others saying "we" are £300 worse off is particularly unclear. One thing I do know, however, that society as a whole is not better off.

I am not a qualified economist by any means, having only studied Economics to "Higher" grade, but one thing worries me greatly. It seems that modern politics, or to be more precise the top modern political parties, seem to think that the race to the bottom is the way to go and the way to financially stimulate the United Kingdom.

Scottish Green Ballot Papers Out For South Scotland Region List

This is it folks. Ballot papers are finally here. I'm really looking forward to this election and hope that you can seriously consider me for your first preference vote.

If you need to speak to me you are more than welcome to. You can either comment on this blog or you can use either my Twitter account @greensoulscot or my Facebook Page at Stephen Dickson - Passionate, Committed, Green

As you can see in my bio and statement I do not have specific political experience, I am not a career politician, but my working life has given me more than a good grounding for a life in Holyrood. I have learned a lot in my time in the party especially as Vice Convenor of Ayrshire Greens and as a member of Standing Orders Committee.

If I could quote part of my 2 minute speech for the hustings:

Invite The Greens - Thunder Clap

Sign up to our Thunderclap, by clicking on the image below, calling on STV to invite the Greens onto their leaders' debate. Nicola Sturgeon, Jim Murphy and Ruth Davidson have all backed our inclusion, alongside 7,500 members of the public. We need to keep putting the pressure on STV to reconsider.

Dumfries & Galloway South Region Hustings

On Monday 9th March the first of the hustings for the selection of candidates for the Scottish Green Party South Scotland Region list took place in Dumfries & Galloway in the Community Centre in Castle Douglas.

As you can see in the photo above there were 12 candidates speaking and trying to convince the local members in the audience that it was worth voting for them.

All candidates spoke for 2 minutes and explained to the audience why they should vote for them. Here all the videos recorded by the branch.

I would just again like to thank Dumfries & Galloway Branch for their welcome and their cake. It was wonderful.

Ayrshire Greens Showing of "A Dangerous Game" by Anthony Baxter

Ayrshire Greens are showing "A Dangerous Game" by Anthony Baxter at 7pm, 24th March at Ayr Town Hall. All welcome.

From the official description:

"A Dangerous Game" is the jaw-dropping sequel to "You've Been Trumped" (winner of a dozen major awards). At stake is our ability to protect what's left of our vanishing and fragile natural world. Struck by the chord his first film made, director Anthony Baxter takes us on a journey to other global hot spots where rapacious developers – often in cahoots with local officials – are using golf as a smokescreen to build massive luxury resorts that end up costing the earth.

Entry is free but any donations would be gratefully received.

Reservations available at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/scottish-greens-ayrshire-branch-7982893814?s=34285476

Vote For Policies Update 4th March 2015

The Vote For Policies site has now been up and running in its "updated for General Election 2015" state since 19th February, that's just under 2 weeks, and an amazing number, over 76,200, have completed the survey in this time.

The national results so far are as follows:

Holyrood Region List Hustings

As if things weren't exciting enough with the campaigns to support our candidates for the upcoming General Elections in May in full swing, the Scottish Green Party are in the process of deciding who their candidates will be for the Regional lists for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2016.

Scotland is broken down into 8 list Regions:

• Central Scotland
• Glasgow
• Highlands and Islands
• Lothian
• Mid Scotland and Fife
• North East Scotland
• South Scotland
• West Scotland

As with the Westminster General Election, there are an unprecedented number of candidates putting themselves forward for nomination.