New First Minister, same old priorities
CONSERVATIVE MSP FOR MID-SCOTLAND & FIFE
Last week I congratulated Humza Yousaf on his election as Scotland’s new First Minister.
As the first Asian Scot to hold that role, and the first Muslim, it is a great sign of the social progress we as a nation have made over the decades, and something we should welcome.
It is particularly significant in the context of a UK Prime Minister who is also of Asian origin and is a practising Hindu.
The SNP leadership campaign was fascinating to watch.
It was clear from opinion polls that the candidate who was most popular with the Scottish people was Kate Forbes, who proposed a much more centrist approach to issues, and a change of direction from the Scottish Government under Nicola Sturgeon.
Humza Yousaf was very much the“continuity candidate”, and therefore it might be unrealistic to expect much of a change of direction from him.
It was surprising, given how close Kate Forbes came to winning, that Humza Yousaf did not offer her a senior role in his government.
Nor were there ministerial roles for any of her key supporters.
The new First Minister seems intent on picking up where Nicola Sturgeon left off, with his very first call being a demand for another independence referendum.
He is also committed to challenging the UK government blocking of the hated Gender Recognition Reform Bill, despite more than half of SNP members voting for candidates who were opposed to it.
Perhaps most depressingly, in the new
Scottish Government we have no Minister for Tourism as was previously the case, but now we have a dedicated Minister for Independence.
This shows that Humza Yousaf’s government has entirely the wrong priorities for the people of Scotland.
Instead of focussing on growing the economy and tackling the cost-of-living crisis, we will just see another relentless drive for independence, something the Scottish people simply don’t want.
Closer to home, I was pleased to see the decision by the board of Live Active Leisure to keep open Perth Leisure Pool and the Dewars Centre for a further year.
These are vital facilities for the people of Perthshire, and Dewars has been a significant centre for Scottish curling over many years, including Olympic and Commonwealth gold winners.
This decision was only possible because Live Active Leisure were able to dip into reserves to fill a £600,000 funding gap. This is clearly an unsustainable position in the longer term.
Ultimately it is up to Perth and Kinross Council to come forward with support for these facilities, as the only shareholders in Live Active Leisure.
I can understand the difficult financial position that the council themselves are in, following budget cuts from the Scottish Government.
Perhaps the new First Minister will take a different approach to local government funding, and reverse some of the cuts we have seen in recent years.
However, given all that Humza Yousaf has said so far about defending Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy, I won’t be holding my breath.