It’s with heavy heart that I have to announce the recent sudden departure of the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, u/Vitiating. After the departure I was asked by the leader of the Conservatives, u/Padanub, to become the new leader of the Scottish Conservatives and I happily accepted the invitation. After serving as Deputy Leader and in the capacity of Cabinet Secretary for Education and Justice in different Governments under different leaders, I am happy to be the leader of the party and I will fight to continue the Conservative-led Government.
To achieve this Conservative-led Government I’ve accepted the help of my good friend and new Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, u/ThreeCommasClub. I’ve worked with ThreeCommas before in the Scottish Libertarians and I know that together we will form a great team to fight for the conservative policies that Scotland deserves, to fight for a renewed contract for Scotland.
Josh Ferme
Dispatches
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/u/ohdearstudying delivers a speech covering the Scottish National Party’s policies on education at Lochaber High School to a group of voters which includes a mix of parents and teachers
“We know that Scotland has been let down by the current Cabinet Secretary for Education and that so much more could and should be done to ensure that Scotland’s children and young people are better equipped for the future regardless of whether they decide to pursue a ‘traditional’ university route or a more practical course - the Scottish education system needs to be equipped to deal with the changing demands of the workforce and provide a better future. I want to make clear that the Scottish National Party, and especially myself, will champion the betterment of educational services within Scotland. We know and we anticipate that our plans for Scotland are ambitious but unlike the Scottish Conservatives we know that they are not unobtainable, and we will put forward legislation to support what we have claimed to do.
Now, most importantly, onto the Scottish National Party’s policies and what we will deliver and what I will be at the forefront of pushing given the opportunity to serve as MSP for this wonderful constituency. Upon coming into government, we will proudly launch an unrivalled National Improvement Framework. This will be a landmark policy in erring on the last twenty years, and will set out a clear vision focused on achieving widespread excellence and equity for all learners without their social background and living circumstances bearing a negative influence. Education, fundamentally, should be based on the ability to learn and not on the ability to pay. That is why this framework will attempt to resolve the deeply rooted issues that have remained unresolved and unaddressed by the Scottish Conservative. There is no denying that this will be a difficult task but it is one we are willing, and I am willing, to champion.
We want everyone working in Scottish education to be clear about what they are seeking to achieve in making their contribution to address these shared priorities that the National Improvement Plan will set out and that does not mean to say this excludes the possibility of further improvement priorities at school level, based on local needs and self-evaluation. We want to empower teachers to ensure that teacher judgement will be informed by a system of new national standardised assessment. They are able to provide better and more consisten
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Just asking as I’m genuinely interested to gain other peoples points of view, not trying to start a whole debate here.
The Scottish Conservatives were yesterday left reeling as an opinion poll for BBC Scotland put the party at their joint lowest level of support since they took office in June 2019.
At 37% the Tories saw a shock 7% fall in just one month. The party, which in contrast has just secured an outright majority in Holyrood, will now have to face rebuilding the party if they are to have any hope of building on the election result of December last year. The polling comes just two weeks after constituency polling saw a 10% fall in support since the final pre-election poll of last term in the Highlands & Islands constituency and a 7% fall in Edinburgh. Not taking into account endorsements the Tories could fall to 48 seats on a bad day, a 14 seat fall on the December 2020 election.
The First Minister declined to comment on the polling for the Herald, but his governing partner /u/model-eddy, whose Scottish Progressive party also suffered a hefty fall of 1.5 points to 4.1%, offered thoughts on why he thought the government had fallen.
>I think the opposition, especially the Liberal Democrats, have been very publicly effective whereas we have been more preoccupied with working hard largely behind the scenes in our governmental capacity. But as the impact of our work becomes more visible I hope voters will once more be able to trust us and judge us accordingly on our record in delivering for them.
The Scottish National Party leader /u/chainchompsky1 had a different take, believing that the Tories had got too comfortable with their position at the top.
>For the Tories complacency breeds pitfalls, the public clearly wants change, and we will do our best to give it to them
New Britain's leader and former Scottish Conservative First Minister /u/Tommy2Boys offered a similar assessment.
>The last election saw the largest ever support for the Scottish Conservatives. Several changes of leader later I am yet to see what the vision of the current First Minister is. Not a single bill under this First Minister from his government has been read at this point, and the only motions we have seen is supporting Solidarity proposals in Westminster. It very much appears as if the vision I asked the Scottish people to back at the last election can no longer be achieved through the Scottish Conservatives.
The fall means that other parties look set to have a lot more influence in the next parliament and the race for "best of the rest" has pitted the Liberal Democrats aga
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