Six Key Priorities

Low Taxes. Cutting wasteful public expenditure and increasing efficiency will fund substantial tax cuts whilst improving public services. Our target is a low, flat-rate tax system covering individuals and businesses alike.

School Choice.  School vouchers to enhance choice, empower parents and drive up standards. We believe in diversity and flexibility in the school system to encourage excellence and to nurture the talents of all.  Choice and excellence should not be the preserve of the wealthy.

Health Reform. Transform the health service by giving everyone private medical insurance to access quality healthcare wherever and whenever it may be needed.

Stimulate Enterprise. Get rid of unnecessary regulations, cut business rates and reward investment to enable Scotland once again to become world class.

Cutting Back the State. Scotland loses billions of pounds every year to ill-conceived projects, duplication and inefficiency. We would set public spending levels in line with other leading economies.

Tackling Crime. Many areas are plagued by vandalism, drugs, and anti-social behaviour. We will boost the aspirations of the young by improving their education and reintroduce proper community policing.

Opposing the sterile politics of nationalism and class hatred

Scotland must return to the well educated, caring and progressive society it once was. We must employ the entrepreneurial skills which were once our hallmark and we must face up to our problems, no matter how controversial. This is not rocket science – it is simply a case of applying common sense and adopting what works in other countries.

However, one fact is inescapable: we must first of all put our prejudices aside and be prepared to open our minds to what will be best for our country and best for our children. Narrow nationalism has little to offer other than a return to the class-based prejudice, ignorance and cheap political posturing that we so badly need to leave behind.

Reawakening the Scottish Enlightenment

Scottish Progressives hold to the values of the Scottish Enlightenment – the values of individual liberty, progress, free trade and scientific advancement. These are the values by which Scotland helped to shape the modern world.

Under successive governments those values have been crushed, so that today we live under a meddlesome state that absorbs 55 per cent of Scotland’s output. The productive sector is being crippled and individual freedoms are being trampled upon.

Scotland's Future Governance

Making Holyrood workable
Scotland is over-governed. Stripping down the layers of government should start with Holyrood, where we propose combining the roles of MSPs and Westminster MPs to create a parliament of 59 Members. We would introduce a ‘one in one out’ cap on legislation to reduce needless bureaucracy and we would establish a Repeals Committee to get rid of unnecessary laws.

The Independence Question
If you believe the hype, the spectre haunting Scottish politics is the spectre of independence. Scots are quite capable of taking a mature decision on independence when the time is right but right now this is a diversion from the real issues facing Scotland. Until we sort out basic problems, independence represents nothing but a false promise peddled by people who would bankrupt our country.

Our relationship with Europe
We will work for an open and flexible Europe with free trade, deregulation and a fair deal for farmers, fishermen and businesses. Without radical reform the European Union will never provide this. We will therefore seek a reformed Europe based upon these aims.