• Cole-Hamilton urges voters to postal vote for Scot Lib Dems on peach ballot paper
• Cut the rural cost of living and help farmers to flourish
• Reid hits out as ministers drop fines for poor ferry performance

Cole-Hamilton urges voters to postal vote for Scot Lib Dems on peach ballot paper

Alex Cole-Hamilton has today used a visit to a climbing wall in Edinburgh to urge voters voting by post to reach for the Scottish Liberal Democrats on the peach regional ballot paper, saying that more Scottish Liberal Democrat MSPs will get more good things done in the next session of Parliament.

At the event, he highlighted his party’s record of achievements over the past five years which included:

• £178m to support businesses through rates relief, including a package over 3 years to help licensed premises like pubs, restaurants, hotels, music venues, licensed clubs and night clubs – linchpins of the high street that have suffered in the cost of living crisis and deserve better. There was also £4m for self-catering businesses to cap their increases and provide a bridge to the next revaluation.
• £70m for colleges – equivalent to a 10% uplift on last year’s budget.
• £20m for social care so providers have the funding they need to lift workers’ pay to the Real Living Wage.
• £9.4m for hospices to help them attract and retain staff by mirroring NHS pay rates.
• £5m more for the Investing in Communities Fund, keeping open projects, services and activities in disadvantaged communities.
• £7.5m to speed up autism and ADHD assessments.
• £2.5m to back young entrepreneurs.
• £7.1m for islands-specific investment, with money to remove peak ferry fares and a commitment to kickstart a new accelerator model.
• Facilities to help new mums and babies born addicted to drugs
• Cash for flood-stricken families and businesses in Fife when the government initially turned its back.
• Suzanne’s Law and Michelle’s Law, strengthening the rights of victims and their families.
• Specialist support for long Covid, ME and chronic fatigue.
• A future for Corseford College for young people with complex needs.
• Money restored to the housing budget after it was cut by the Greens and SNP.
• The right for family carers to earn more without being penalised.
• Work restarted on Edinburgh’s Eye Hospital and the Belford in Fort William.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

Postal votes have been landing on doormats over the last couple of days and I want to urge those voters who are voting early to cast your peach regional ballots for the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

When I travel round the country knocking on doors, voters tell me that they are tired and frustrated with 19 years of the SNP in charge.

Only Scottish Liberal Democrats have demonstrated a record of delivering change with fairness at its heart.

Unlike other parties who send out angry press releases but refuse to do the hard graft of actually getting anything passed, we are all about rolling up our sleeves and getting things done for you, your family or your business.

Just look at the £178 million in extra support we secured to support businesses through rates relief, or the tens of millions we locked down for care workers.

We can now say we are more pro-business than the Conservative party and more pro-NHS than the Labour party.

We achieved all of this with just a handful of MSPs, just imagine what we could do with more.

I want to be straight with people. You have two votes. In many constituencies we are on the verge of winning against the SNP but wherever you are, every vote for the Scottish Liberal Democrats on the second peach ballot will deliver change with fairness at its heart.

Scotland deserves better, and with the Scottish Liberal Democrats you can vote for it.

Cut the rural cost of living and help farmers to flourish

Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader Wendy Chamberlain has today used a visit to Craigies farm near Edinburgh to set out her party’s plans for helping farmers to flourish, including increasing food self-sufficiency by 10% to reduce Scotland’s exposure to potential shocks and interruptions to the supply of food, as she highlighted how her party has set out the most comprehensive plan for farming of any party in this election.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats’ plan will:

• Ringfence agriculture funding, protect support payments and move to 3-year funding deals to give farmers the confidence and certainty they need.
• Declare the Scottish Government’s support for Alistair Carmichael MP’s Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill to get fairer prices for farmers and food producers across the UK, bringing new checks and balances on the power of the big supermarkets.
• Support a new bespoke UK-EU customs union, making it easier for businesses to export to key markets in the EU.
• Champion the scrapping of the family farm tax altogether, protecting generational farming, rural livelihoods and food security.

Wendy Chamberlain said:

When it comes to food and drink, Scotland has got so much going for it. But nobody is getting a fair deal if people can’t afford to buy healthy food and producers can’t make a profit producing it.

Hardworking farmers have had to contend with the Conservatives’ botched deal with the EU damaging their ability to export. It has ushered in barriers, red-tape and trade deals that pose a risk to our high standards. People feel let down by debacles including the SNP Government’s Future Farming Investment Scheme that became a lottery for the farmers it was supposed to help.

Scottish Liberal Democrats will stand up for our farmers and crofters because we know they are the linchpins of our rural communities. We have set out the most comprehensive plan for farming of any party in this election because caring about our country must include caring about how we feed our country. Homegrown food is in the national interest and essential for our security. International uncertainty and President Trump’s destructive trade war should trigger a strategic increase in domestic food production.

Scottish Liberal Democrats will cut the cost of rural living, help farmers to flourish and deliver change with fairness at its heart. That’s our positive message to rural communities.

The more MSPs we elect, the more we can get done. That’s why I am urging voters to back Scottish Liberal Democrats on your peach regional ballot.

Reid hits out as ministers drop fines for poor ferry performance

Responding to the news that ministers have scrapped ferry failure fines paid by CalMac when ferry performance drops, Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Argyll & Bute Alan Reid said:

The relationship between CalMac and the Scottish Government is desperately unhealthy. Rather than turning up the pressure on the ferry operator to improve anything for islanders and travellers, ministers are looking to spare both their blushes by minimising any possible sanction.

Scotland needs a rolling programme of ferry replacements and an end to SNP mismanagement. In Argyll and Bute only Scottish Liberal Democrats can do that.

I also want to see real islander representation on the board of CalMac. Someone needs to tell them straight that this isn’t good enough and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be SNP ministers.