Six Key Priorities
Scottish Parliament. Correct present democratic deficit by MSPs debating UK matters in Westminster, a non-political revising chamber and all 59 Scottish MPs dispensed with
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. Set public spending levels in line with other leading economies and allow the private and voluntary sectors to increase quality and decrease costs.
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. Scientific advance, knowledge and logic must always trump political chicanery.
We must 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 support the values of the Scottish Enlightenment – 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. The well known social philanthropist, Robert Owen said that “society is a machine to enable the individual” however we have created a society which does precisely the opposite.