Politicians desperately need to get back to the day-to-day issues
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ELECTION PROFILE: Andrew Sinclair, Scottish Conservative and Unionist candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
On December 12, I am asking for your vote to ensure we have the strongest voice in Westminster to fight for you, your family and our community. This area of Scotland faces its own unique challenges, and its vital that our representatives understand the concerns and frustrations of local people.
I have the honour of representing the people of Wick and East Caithness on Highland Council, and in that role I’ve been able to appreciate the challenges and frustrations, but also the hopes and aspirations, that people in our part of the world share.
We must support our rural economy after 12 years of SNP neglect – protecting local industry, developing skills and encouraging inward investment. One of my main priorities is to address the impending depopulation crisis we face in the far north, with parts of this constituency expected to decline by up to 20 per cent by 2041. More young people are now leaving our communities in search of further education or better job prospects, with limited options to come back north thereafter. I was fortunate enough to be able to return to Caithness after university and I’d like more people to have that opportunity. We need to ensure that the opportunities for further education and skills development are available locally and that good stable jobs exist within our communities.
Our communities risk becoming even more physically remote at a time when the wider world is becoming more connected.
We need to do everything we can to make the far north an attractive and enticing place for people to want to come and work. This means decentralising our public services, such as our vital health and social care provision. We have seen how fragile provision can be, with patients increasingly having to travel to Inverness for access to basic care. We need a service that is not just fit for purpose for those using it but also for the dedicated frontline staff who carry it out.
Across the Highlands we must ensure that our wider connectivity is fit for purpose in the 21st century, in terms of both transport and broadband access. Our air, rail and road links are under increasing pressure and I will do everything I can to protect and enhance these. Threats to our transport links mean our communities risk becoming even more physically remote at a time when the wider world is becoming more connected. Enhanced broadband access is destined to be a key player in ensuring our local businesses can reach out to wider markets, which is why I will push for faster broadband roll-out to areas such as ours.
As far as national politics is concerned, at this election there will be no escaping the constant debate over the issues of Brexit and Scottish independence. As a democrat I could not be clearer: we must respect the results of both referendums, defend our democracy and move on.
Nicola Sturgeon is now pushing for another divisive Scottish independence referendum as early as 2020. The Scottish Conservatives are clear – the people of Scotland voted decisively in 2014, choosing to remain in the UK, the largest democratic exercise on our country’s history.
Obsessions over constitutional issues are nothing but a distraction. Politicians across the political spectrum have taken their eye off the ball and desperately need to get back to the day-to-day issues affecting ordinary people.
- Andrew Sinclair is the Scottish Conservative and Unionist candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross in this month’s general election. All five candidates in the constituency have been invited to take part in our Election Profile series in the John O’Groat Journal and Caithness Courier, in print and online.
