Campaigns forge ahead

Date23 April 2021
Published date23 April 2021
Publication titleDumfries & Galloway Standard
There are five candidates contesting the Galloway and West Dumfries seat.

FINLAY CARSON has held the seat for the last five years for the Tories and he faces competition from the SNP's Emma Harper, who has served as South Scotland MSP, Labour councillor Archie Dryburgh, Laura Moodie from the Greens and Iain McDonald from the Liberal Democrats.

Each week between now and polling day, on May 6, the News will be providing them the opportunity to pitch for your vote.

There are also 83 candidates from 16 different parties for the seven South Scotland regional seats. They are: Abolish the Scottish Parliament Party: John Ferguson, Simon Bellord.

Alba Party: Cynthia Guthrie, Corri Wilson, Suzanne Blackley, Laurie Flynn.

All for Unity: George Galloway, Jamie Blackett, Bruce Halliday, Jim Grindlay, Kirsteen Michell, Elspeth Grindlay, Malcolm Macdonald.

Freedom Alliance - Integrity, Society, Economy: Mandy Blackman, Amanda McConechy, Gillian Jamieson, Joy Rivett-Gill.

Independent Green Voice: Maxwell Dunbar.

Reform UK: Michelle Ballantyne, David Kirkwood, James Corbett, William Luke.

Scotia Future: Chic Brodie. Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party: Oliver Mundell, Rachael Hamilton, Craig Hoy, Brian Whittle, Sharon Dowey, Shona Haslam, Finlay Carson, Scott Hamilton, Alex Allison, Eric Holford, Alexandra Herdman, John Denerley.

Scottish Family Party: Charles McEwan, Dorothy Yost, Sophie Hendry, Theresa Gavin, Ann Fabisiak.

Scottish Green Party: Laura Moodie, Barbra Harvie, Dominic Ashmole, Katherine Malone, Charles Strang, Ciara Campbell, Peter Barlow,

James Puchowski, Tristan Gray.

Scottish Labour Party: Colin Smyth, Carol Mochan, Martin Whitfield, Claudia Beamish, Kevin McGregor, Katherine Sangster, Ian Davidson.

Scottish Liberal Democrats: Catriona Bhatia, Jenny Marr, Richard Brodie, AC May, Euan Davidson, Amanda Kubie, Kirsten Herbst-Gray.

Scottish Libertarian Party: Stef Johnstone.

Scottish National Party: Emma Harper, Joan McAlpine, Paul Wheelhouse; Màiri McAllan; Richard Walker, Heather Anderson, Siobhian Brown, Stacy Bradley, Paul McLennan, Ali Salamati, Stephen Thompson, Laura Brennan- Whitefield.

UK Independence Party: Richard Elvin, Julia Searle, Patricia Mountain, Patricia Bryant, Nick Hollis, David Blaymires.

Vanguard Party: Michael Banks.

IAIN MCDONALD

LIB DEM -

Married to a retired teacher, I saw first hand the drive and commitment of our teachers to their job, but also how the bureaucracy and the lack of awareness of the needs in our education system wears them down.

Last week the Liberal Democrats published their election manifesto, which set out plans for every stage of education so that our young people get a good start and that there are opportunities for people all ages to retrain if they need to later in life.

These include: • Rewarding teachers with a fresh review of professional development and career pathways, pay and conditions, to attract and retain the best recruits to the profession, and give them the support they need in the classroom.We have well trained teachers with life experiences on temporary contracts or unemployed while our schools go under resourced.

• Implementing an urgent new investment programme to help our young people bounce back from the disruption to their education caused by the COVID pandemic.

• Raising standards in every classroom by extending the pupil equity fund, which gives children from less well-off backgrounds the extra support they need to achieve their potential.

• Helping more children get off to the best start by creating a new early years phase, replacing primary one and primary two, to help them acquire important learning and social skills, based on Scandinavian models.

• Beginning to extend funded childcare provision to one-year-olds by the end of the parliamentary term to parents who want it.

• Restoring colleges to a powerful role in local economic development, training people of all ages in the skills they need to start or change careers and so we have a workforce to meet the needs of our areas now and in the future.

These objectives...

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