It’s Starting

While the party conference season south of the border may have concluded some time ago, the same is far from the case in Scotland. Recent days saw the SNP hold its biggest ever conference in Inverness, where around 2,000 delegates, members and visitors flocked to Eden Court for the four day event.

It was always inevitable that the first party conference since winning an outright majority in the Scottish Parliament earlier this year was always going to attract a lot of people, but I don’t think anyone could have anticipated just quite how well attended the event would be.

During the rousing address from our First Minister Alex Salmond, there was such a demand for seats that as well as packing out the main auditorium, five additional theatres were pressed into action as overspill rooms to watch the speech via video and still more people were only able to listen in over speakers in the foyer area.

While the leader’s speech is undoubtedly the highlight of conference though, there were a huge number of impressive speeches throughout the four days and many significant decisions on party policy were debated and voted upon. Perhaps most significant of all events at this year’s conference, however, were the events of the final day in Inverness.

The late Scots Makar, our national poet, Edwin Morgan left the SNP the staggering sum of £918,000 to take forward our efforts to build the independent Scotland he wished to live in. In Inverness it was announced that this transformational sum would be ring-fenced for the referendum campaign and even more significantly the starting gun on that campaign was fired.

During the election we promised to hold a referendum on independence in the second half of our parliamentary term and this is precisely what we will do. Yet beginning now we will embark upon an unprecedented campaign to talk to and enthuse people of all party political persuasions and none, on how our nation will benefit from the power to take our own decisions.

With the publication of our vision for an independent Scotland at scotlandforward.net, the campaign has begun in earnest and will reach out to every street and household to shape the future of our country.

The words “Scotland – It’s starting” may have been an understated launch to the campaign for Scottish independence, but their impact on improving our country may be felt throughout history.

No place for bullying

You would hope that elected parliamentarians would at all times set a good example of acceptable behaviour, particularly when it comes to something as serious as intimidating and threatening behaviour. Yet it seems this is sadly not the case, with a Labour MP, the chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee Ian Davidson, having threatened my colleague at Westminster Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP with “getting a doing” during a private meeting.

This kind of behaviour is utterly unacceptable in any walk of life and there is absolutely no place for bullying and intimidation in any workplace. Such disgusting attitudes belong in the dark days of the past and it is extraordinary that anyone would seek to defend such behaviour as some are trying to do.

Mr Davidson has shamed Scotland, shamed his constituents and most of all shamed himself with his actions and should step down from his position as a matter of urgency. Eilidh has had the courage to speak out and condemn his behaviour and refuse to be threatened or intimidated by Mr Davidson. That is something she should be commended for and I know she will have the backing of people throughout this area.