ON SATURDAY, I joined Martin Whitfield and colleagues from across Scotland at the Scottish Labour policy conference in Edinburgh.
There, we finalised the policy platform for our manifesto at next year’s Scottish Parliament election.
A raft of exciting new policies were unveiled at the conference, all geared towards ending the current drift and decline under the SNP, and instead realising Scotland’s full potential.
For example, Anas Sarwar announced a guaranteed apprenticeship for every qualified applicant in priority sectors. This means a Scottish Labour government will create 9,000 new apprenticeship places by the end of the next parliament, backed by £36m of annual funding, while an apprenticeship clearing system will ensure no talent is lost.
Also announced were plans to create a new emergency service of trained NHS professionals to respond specifically to 999 mental health crises. It will see dedicated mental health emergency teams of paramedics, nurses and clinicians, rather than police, responding to mental health emergencies.
To tackle concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour, a Scottish Labour government will restore community policing by ensuring every community has a named police officer: 360 officers will be freed up for frontline policing with named community and crime prevention officer in every council ward, and we’ll restore crime prevention teams to work directly with schools, retailers and local groups.
These are just a few of the exciting policy proposals Anas Sarwar and his team will be campaigning on at next year’s election. It will not be a protest election. It is a chance to elect a government that focuses on fixing the basics and believes in Scotland’s future.
I know that a majority of people in East Lothian already want to turn the page on nearly 20 years of the SNP. We cannot afford to waste another decade under them.
But the only way to end the decline and division in May is with a Scottish Labour government led by Anas Sarwar.
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