Round and About

With around 90 days to go until the referendum on what the people of Scotland want their future to look like, I’m embarking on my annual tour of the Banffshire and Buchan Coast constituency, eager to hear how you feel things are going.

This week and next, I’ll be taking my mobile office around the constituency in what will be the 14th time – covering 37 communities from Rothiemay in the far west to Boddam in the south east, and inland to Aberchirder, New Byth and Memsie.

I believe that people appreciate seeing their MSP come to them, rather than waiting for locals to come to one of my more traditional surgeries in a nearby town or village. Communications may now largely be dominated by advancements in technology, but there is still nothing more influential than face to face contact, and it gives me a good excuse to re-visit some of the smaller communities in the area.

It is vital to me that I am in touch with what the issues are in the constituency, and it is why I started this tour 14 years ago. However this is a landmark year for Scotland, and even more crucial that everyone has all the information they feel they need to make one of the most important decisions of their lives.

When I do make my way round, I find the constituency truly a Scotland in miniature – a country of extraordinary resources and talent, and more than capable of standing on its own two feet.

Over the last few weeks, the Scottish Government published the Community Empowerment (Scotland) bill, designed to nurture enterprising development and participation. There are plans to have one million acres of land in community ownership by 2020, with provisions for communities to take over public sector land and buildings where they can deliver greater public benefit. Rules on Scotland’s local authority allotment sites would be simplified with a stronger emphasis on councils to provide sites triggered by demand, and protect allotment sites from closure. Funding to go alongside the bill would be increased by £1.5 million to £9.4 million per year in 2015/16.

These are the kinds of measures that can transform a community and galvanise an area to make the best with what they have. We need to be given the tools to cultivate what we have here in the north east of Scotland.

We want to protect the public services that we have, such as the NHS from the encroachment of privatisation down south, and we want to make the most of the vast economic opportunities offered in Scotland. Our small country generates more wealth per head than Japan, France or the UK. We have more top universities per head than any other country in the world, and we have huge strengths in creative industries, renewables, tourism, and the life sciences, some of which are exemplified locally.

Rather than London being a brain drain of the country, Scotland has the opportunity to take advantage of our economic strengths with independence. There would be challenges ahead but we could create an economic policy that was fit for purpose for the people that actually live here. By having control of our wealth, we would be in a better position to face these challenges head on. This would mean we would have the ability to create more and better jobs. Our tax system could be designed to give Scottish firms a more competitive edge, encouraging those training up that they could create their own success in Scotland rather than having to go anywhere else.

We can make lives easier for young families by investing in childcare, and give households more financial security through cost of living increases in pensions, tax credits and tax free allowances.

We are a country of extraordinary resources, and we should be able to use them to our advantage.

Within the last month, many prominent figures from across the world have been talklng about Scotland and all agree it's a decision for us whether our country should become independent – it’s time the voice of the people of Scotland, especially those in the Banffshire and Buchan Coast, was heard.