The Scottish Conservatives will offer a genuine "Scottish alternative" to the SNP in next year's Holyrood elections, Ruth Davidson said today.
In a key note speech marking 150 days until the May 5th vote, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives said the party would speak up for people increasingly concerned about a 'one party state' under the SNP.
"My message to them is this: in the Scottish Conservatives, there is an alternative voice which will stand up to the SNP's plans for separation, and constant flirtation with a second referendum."
She adds: "Here's my message 150 days out. Scotland isn't a one party state. Not while I'm around it won't be. Our party has the team, the commitment, the energy, the ideas and the vision for the fight ahead."
Over the coming five months, the Scottish Conservatives will, she said, set out a clear alternative plan - for a "moderate, energetic" Scottish Government which categorically rules out taking Scotland back to another referendum.
"With a vote for the Scottish Conservatives in May, you are saying that you want to move on.
"That you want to put an end to it. It's a vote which says - I want to live in a country whose future isn't under a cloud – but is assured.
"Simply, it's a vote restating your wish to stay part of the United Kingdom so you and your family can get on with life."
Setting out the Scottish Conservative vision for the next 150 days, she added:
"My plan for this election is to use our strong foundations within the United Kingdom to set out a new vision."
"Not bowing to the big state on the one hand or genuflecting to the free market on the other – but of an active and energetic government which seeks to create a more level playing field, and a better quality of life for us all.
"A moderate government which knows that the State can't do it all and shouldn't try to – but knows that the State can strengthen society when used well."
The speech comes as the Scottish Conservatives this week unveil all their regional list rankings.
"I want people to know that we are ready. We are prepared.
"I've brought our party to the start line in good shape.
“Ours is a party that now gets devolution and has transformed itself to reflect entirely our modern Union.
"This is a Scottish election. So this is our campaign. It's our plan, policies and ideas. Made in Scotland. For Scotland."
Ends
Notes to editors
Please see the full version of the speech below:
CHECK ON DELIVERY
Good morning.
Today marks 150 days until the Scottish Parliament elections next May.
150 days to decide - as a nation- whether we want to go back to a divided past, or forward to a united future.
…to decide - as families and individuals- the kind of country we're going to build for the decades ahead.
… in which we, the Scottish Conservative party, will stake our claim to be the real Scottish alternative to the SNP.
… backing a secure economy which creates a decent job for people who have none.
…improving our schools and colleges and protecting our universities so we can offer greater opportunities to the next generation.
….and, be in no doubt, always prepared to stand up and defend OUR place in OUR United Kingdom.
We are renewed in our values and in our purpose, and we are united in achieving our goals.
We want to provide a positive vision for a Scottish Government which no longer seeks to create and widen conflicts, but acts constructively and energetically within our United Kingdom - for the betterment of all.
We are going to show there is an alternative to the politics of grievance, an alternative to top-down centralisation and an alternative to raising taxes on everything that moves and a good deal of what doesn't as well.
We, the Scottish Conservatives, ARE that Scottish alternative.
…..
Now, some might say that I'm firing the starting gun on this election campaign too early.
Talking about an election in May today is a bit like sticking up Christmas trees in September.
But this is the week that our campaign really gets going.
When I became leader, I decided I wanted to tear up the old way of selecting our candidates for these elections.
And it wasn't something we'd do at the last minute – only think about when an election was looming on the horizon.
For three and a half years, I have charged the candidates board I set up – with skills and experience from industry and the wider world – to find, identify, encourage, assess and support the next generation of Scottish Conservatives that would take this party forward.
I wanted the brightest and best at our parliament; our laws and our country deserved serious people of seriously high calibre.
It has been a massive undertaking. Hundreds of new candidates have been vetted. And over the last few weeks, tens of thousands of Conservative supporters - not just members - all across Scotland have had the chance to rank these candidates.
…the biggest exercise in grass roots democracy this party has ever undertaken.
Later this week, the ballot boxes will be opened and we will be able to unveil our regional list rankings for the next parliament.
I have absolutely no idea how that's going to shake out and who's going to top each list.
But I do know two things:
Firstly, that we are going to have a host of new faces and new names coming forward. The Scottish Conservative party has changed – and come this weekend, everyone will see that.
And secondly, whoever comes forward, I know I am going to have a heavyweight team around me who are united in wanting to give something back to this country.
People pledging their future to politics. But people with experience of the real world.
…we will be a party that looks, sounds, and is like modern Scotland.
Now certain other parties – I won't name names – haven't just failed to pick candidates in some seats yet. It appears they haven't yet found candidates willing to stand. Nor have they decided yet how their lists should be ranked or who should be entitled to vote for them.
And I know other parties – I won't name them – are having issues over who exactly they have allowed to stand – and exactly what they've got up to.
Well this week, I want people to know that WE are ready.
WE are prepared.
I've brought our party to the start line in good shape.
Not for us diversions and divisions over process and internal party matters – we, every one of us, are focussing 100% on the concerns of working families across Scotland.
People can also be sure of another thing.
This is a campaign and a movement planned, executed, organised and run from here in Scotland.
I don't need to go to London and have David Cameron do a photo-op signing a wee piece of paper to tell me that I'm in charge. And he doesn't need it either.
Ours is a party that now gets devolution and has transformed itself to reflect entirely our modern Union.
This is a Scottish election. So this is our campaign. It's our plan, policies and ideas. Made in Scotland. For Scotland.
…..
Now, come the New Year we will set out in detail those policies we want to see enacted here in Scotland.
But today I want to set out the key issues we face as we enter this campaign.
This election is of massive import to the country.
For the first time, we are not just choosing a parliament to spend money – but to raise it too.
Huge new powers will soon be under the Scottish Parliament's control. Finally, Scottish politics is about to get real.
Secondly, because after years of stagnation, we need a proper debate about how best we improve our public services so that every child, every patient and every elderly person gets the education, the treatment and the care they deserve.
And thirdly, because this election will also determine how Scotland edges forward after the last few momentous years.
The question facing us is this: are we going to entrench the divisions of the last five years?
Are we going to stay in limbo with the shadow of continued constitutional turmoil hanging over us?
Or are we going to move forward together, secure in our future, free from the uncertainty the last few years have brought?
My plan for the campaign will be to respond to these three major issues - taxation, services and constitution. And I believe it is only the Scottish Conservatives which has the real alternative vision which Scotland so desperately needs.
On the new tax powers, we have a clear plan.
People will have received letters from HMRC in the last few days telling them that the Scottish rate of income tax is coming. Much, much more will follow.
And the basic fact it this: if we use these powers wisely, we will all benefit. Use them badly, and our public services will suffer.
This isn't a time for gesture politics. It's time for cool heads and sensible stewardship.
The priority should be grow our tax base, to expand our economy, and get more high value jobs. That way we all benefit.
But here's the thing. None of that will happen if we throw up a warning sign over Scotland saying "higher taxes here".
All parties therefore need to show they have a serious, thought-through plan.
Our Commission on Competitive and Fair taxation, headed by Sir Iain McMillan, will report back within the next few weeks and will help us inform our thinking.
Our principles are already set: Scotland will only lose out if we increase the tax burden above the rest of the United Kingdom.
There is no such thing as government money – only the money governments take from the people and businesses of our country and we say people should never be taxed more in Scotland than the rest of the UK.
Voters can be assured they won't lose out under us.
***
In this as in all things at this election, we will be the genuine Scottish alternative to a status quo. And I point to our record to demonstrate it.
Over the last year, it hasn't been Labour which took on the SNP over the scandal of Scotland's attainment gap in education: it was us.
It wasn't Labour which has put pressure on the SNP over the inflexible statist way in which it offers childcare for parents: it was us.
It wasn't Labour which has backed parents who want to have the freedom to run their own cherished local schools, that was us.
And it isn't Labour or the SNP which has a plan to fund 1,000 extra nurses and more bursaries for poorer students – and can show how to pay for it – that, again, is us.
Labour has had 9 years as the official opposition in this country with all the extra resource and exposure that brings.
Yet in those nine years, they have comprehensively failed in either task an opposition is there to fulfil - holding the government to account and providing a credible alternative vision.
Well, we have that vision. We will bring forward the fresh ideas and fresh thinking that Scotland is crying out for.
And on Scotland's future, we will be clear. There is absolutely no case, none-whatsoever, for the SNP taking this country back to yet more constitutional uncertainty.
With a vote for the Scottish Conservatives in May, you are saying that you want to move on.
That you want to put an end to it. It's a vote which says - I want to live in a country whose future isn't under a cloud – but is assured.
Simply, it's a vote restating your wish to stay part of the United Kingdom so you and your family can get on with life.
And it's a vote that will ensure the SNP hears you in saying that.
***
I know that with Labour is such disarray, many people are worried – deeply worried – that Scotland is becoming a one party state.
People see Nicola Sturgeon re-measuring the curtains at Bute House already. I know and have met many Scots who fear it isn't good for our country to have one political party in such a dominant position.
Well, my message to them is this: in the Scottish Conservatives, there is an alternative voice which will stand up to the SNP's plans for separation, and constant flirtation with a second referendum.
…something which neither Labour nor the Lib Dems appear to have the stomach for anymore.
Both have said that they'd now give their teams a free vote on independence and would stand back and applaud if any of their MSPs wanted to actively campaign for it in future.
For two parties who spend years before the referendum telling everyone they would always stand up for the UK, it is pathetic and weak.
I will only repeat my commitment on this.
We will stick by No voters head, heart, body and soul.
We won't go soft on the Union. We won't play the SNP's games or fall for their spin.
I say this: independence isn't "inevitable"; independence - on the SNP model - is an increasingly discredited idea which Scots didn't vote for, they don't want, and which isn't going to happen.
And a vote for us is a vote that makes that clear; no to separation, yes to a united future.
For the two million people who made that clear - We will be your voice in Holyrood.
…
But I will say this….
I don't want to have to stand here, month after month, year after year, restating that.
I desperately want this constitutional battle to be over.
Not because I fear the verdict of the Scottish people - not after last year.
But because it has left us a more divided country.
People with honest opinions on all sides have faced intimidation and abuse. Families and friendships have been tested. As with any debate over identity, it has become personal and, too often, nasty.
We didn't used to be like this as a country.
I want this debate to be over because – too often it has poisoned the well – and the obsession with the constitution has damaged our politics.
Think of all the opportunities that Labour, Lib Dem and SNP administrations have had since devolution.
We now have a Scottish Government whose budget is double that of the first parliament in 1999.
We have the resource and the mechanisms to think big, think differently.
The truth is, that opportunity has been squandered.
And in its place we've had a dull, dreary debate…
…between a government which knows only how to spend money and expects credit for doing so
...and an opposition whose only imaginative response is to promise to spend even more.
…followed by the predictable wave of grudge and grievance, and the blaming of Westminster when, inevitably, the cheque book runs dry.
There has got to be a better way. We need in Scotland to think harder, smarter about the road ahead.
We need to break the mould.
In Scotland, we have tested soft-left socialism to destruction: and now, with every tumbling sixties tower block in Glasgow, we see it falling to pieces before our very eyes.
Jeremy Corbyn may believe those days should return. He should go and see what his brand of 1960s statism has achieved by trapping generations of poor Scots in welfare dependency.
And yet – rightly – we are suspicious of the alternative. Because we know, too, that an unbridled free market has come up short.
It's not just in Scotland - across the world, the old political parties are failing to provide the answers to these challenges.
Some on the right say: hand more power to the market – when we all know that the market has too often been shown to be rigged against working people.
The left says: hand more power to the State – when we all know that the State has failed and is failing to respond to our personal needs.
We now have socialism with an IPad says John McDonnell, by way of response.
If it had been left to socialists like John McDonnell, we would never have invented an abacus, never mind an Ipad.
My plan for this election is to use our strong foundations within the United Kingdom to set out a new vision.
….not bowing to the big state on the one hand or genuflecting to the free market on the other – but of an active and energetic government which seeks to create a more level playing field, and a better quality of life for us all.
A moderate government which knows that the State can't do it all and shouldn't try to – but knows that the State can strengthen society when used well.
- by intervening in families who need it and require our support, but clearing out of the way for those families who don't.
- by ending remote centralised power which disempowers people, and instead handing power back to communities to encourage an active and cooperative society.
- by having the ambition to make our schools the centre of our communities, bringing parents and families together.
- by supporting infrastructure which eases trade, but makes our living spaces more human.
- by using our Universities not just to educate our young but to spark entrepreneurism across our society.
An equality of opportunity which runs through our nation like a pulsing vein, washing away the entrenched inequalities and levelling the playing field for all.
Rejecting the dreary, big state, monotone we hear from the SNP and Labour.
…but returning to those values that once inspired parties of the left, values that that they long ago abandoned: individual responsibility, collective endeavour, a strong society, energetic government.
In short, it's an attempt to get the State back working for people, not the other way around.
Now, if the SNP, Labour and the LibDems want to spell out how this new politics can work, then I welcome them onto this ground.
I fear they can't.
The SNP because it is trapped by the need to drive its independence obsession ever further forward.
Labour because its leadership can't presently agree how to peel a banana, never mind run a country.
The LibDems because they are now too weak.
Well, we are strong, we are growing, and we know what we're about.
A moderate party which will stay absolutely rock solid behind our UK.
And, for those two million people who voted No, I promise I will be your voice. Left or Right, I will stand for anyone who wants to make our devolved Scotland work and increase the benefits from being in Britain.
….
So here's my message 150 days out.
Scotland isn't a one party state.
Not while I'm around it won't be.
Our party has the team, the commitment, the energy, the ideas and the vision for the fight ahead.
We are strong and we are growing.
We take the responsibility voters put in us seriously.
And we see a clear choice for those voters.
On the one hand, Staying on the hamster wheel of the soft left, money solves all problems, no issue 'more government' can't fix, creeping taxes, managed decline, constitutional uncertainty.
But we are determined to show that a better way is possible.
Freedom in our schools, greater locality for our services, support for business, keeping taxes low, two governments working together in concert, not conflict. Maximising the resourcefulness, drive and ambition of our people and bringing our divided country back together.
A real alternative, A Scottish alternative.
150 days until we choose.
150 days for us to go out there and show our strength.
To show our drive and commitment.
The Scottish Conservatives will not sit back and watch a bloated and arrogant bunch of nationalists put the needs of our country at the back of the queue behind their separatist agenda.
So we will work
To show our vision
To win back the trust and the support of the people of this country.
Street by street, town by town
Showing communities that we will work for them and for the betterment of all our nation.
I am ready,
I know you are ready,
And the country is ready for a real Scottish Alternative.
Thank You.