Ryan-Thomas’s Blog

Five First Ministers, four hundred million wasted on ferries with painted on windows, three high-profile arrests, two recent by-election defeats and one dodgy campervan. That is not even the worst of the abysmal record of the Scottish National Party.

Last year, 800 Scots died because of long waits for treatment in accident and emergency and one in six of us are stuck on an NHS waiting list.

The educational attainment gap between rich and poor is worsening, and funding for colleges has been slashed by 20%.

The new HMP Glasgow, which will house murderers, rapists and peadophiles, according to official plans will feature ‘beautiful, landscaped gardens’, an orchard and an amphitheatre. The prison is now nine years late, ten times over budget and associated costs have rocketed to over one billion pounds. For context, the new five-star Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, which contains over 1,500 bedrooms, a shopping mall, an aquarium, an array of restaurants and even a waterpark with 105 slides has cost the same.

After 18 years of SNP incompetence and managed decline, Scotland cannot afford for this to go on any longer. The country I love desperately needs a new direction, and that is why I will be voting for Scottish Labour, led by Anas Sarwar, at the Scottish Parliamentary Election next year.

Anas Sarwar worked as an NHS dentist before his entry to politics. Working in one of the most deprived areas in Scotland, he has seen first hand the abandonment of that and similar communities by the SNP Scottish Government.

Elected as the leader of Scottish Labour in 2021, he became the first Muslim to lead a political party in the UK. He has turned Labour’s fortunes around in Scotland, with the party winning a landslide in our country at last years general election and more recently the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, the first time the seat was won by Labour since 2011.

Unfortunately however, Anas has been the target in a slew of racism from figures in Reform UK. In an online campaign during that by-election, they said that he would: “prioritise the Pakistani community” if he became First Minister.

At the time, a spokesperson for Sarwar said: “This is a blatantly racist advert from Reform UK that attempts to question his identity, loyalty and belonging.

“Anas was born in Scotland and has lived here all his life. He is a proud Scot who has worked in our NHS.”

His education was also referenced recently by SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney, who said: “I don’t think this state school boy being lectured about elitism is a great work for Mr. Sarwar” in response to a question asked by him about the state of the Scottish education system.

Simply, it does not have to be like this.

Swinney and Farage clearly fear Anas Sarwar, because why else would they be launching personal attacks to question his morals?

Rule number one of good politics; insult the policy, not the person.

John Swinney and The SNP know they are deeply unpopular, and face an uphill battle to maintain power.

Reform UK know that a centre-right party cannot win power in a centre-left and progressive country like Scotland.

However, it would be wrong of me to suggest that the UK Labour Government has got everything right and that everything has gone to plan. That would be a lie.

However Keir Starmer is not running to be Scotland’s next First Minister. Anas Sarwar is.

But Labour have made achievements since they came to power; 1,000 GPs have been hired to end the 8am scramble, 500,000 more children are in receipt of free-school meals, and they’ve introduced free breakfast clubs to ensure children never go to school hungry.

But Scotland will not see any of this, because the SNP Scottish Government, which have control of the NHS and education have so-far refused to follow suit.

In England, NHS waiting lists are going down, but in Scotland, they are going up.

In England, 500,000 more children are now in receipt of free school meals. In Scotland, the SNP abandoned their promise to roll them out for all primary school children.

In England, Labour have opened 3,000 new school based nurseries. In Scotland, parents and carers are forced to pay out hundreds of pounds a month for private childcare.

If the SNP had a good idea on how to fix the issues that they themselves have caused, they would have had it long before now.

Instead, they’ve pressed the nuclear button. Their record in government is so abysmal and impossible to campaign on, they’ve resorted to talking up independence and Farage to attempt to distract voters from the mess they’ve caused.

They’ve wasted billions of pounds of our money on prisons, ferries, and court cases to try and score political points. Their former CEO has even been charged with the alleged embezzlement of their own members donations, so with that in mind, why should we trust them with our hard earned money? The answer is that we shouldn’t.

To finish. I’d like to ask you a question. Do think Scotland is the best it can be?

If your answer is no, I assume that you, like me, believe Scotland deserves and needs a new direction. That will only be achieved by Anas Sarwar and a strong, Scottish Labour government elected next year.