Can Richard Cook revive the Scottish Conservatives? (Part Two)

In Richard's next post he talks about his intentions for the Scottish Conservative party to play a bigger role in social action projects in some of the poorest areas of our country.

I think we must continue to take positive action, as a party, to improve communities through social action projects. Its not enough to just do it in the final few months before an election so that we can show off that we only cared for that period of time. We must continue to deliver for some of the poorest people in our country and must inspire them to voting for proper change, i.e. voting Conservative, in order to start making their lives more fruitful and rewarding for their future. Labour are complacent when it comes on relying on votes from some of the poorest sections of society. Its as if they expect it and they take those votes for granted. Coming from a party who their last PM doubled the income tax rate for the poorest in society from 10p in the pound to 20p in the pound. That is simply wrong and insulting.

But if Labour are punishing the poor then first of all why as a party are we not condemning Labour's lack of compassion for them and secondly why aren't we reaching out to those people and looking to meet those people's needs? In some constituencies in Scotland, on the campaign trail, our party didn't even bother campaigning in some specific areas because they were too frightened to go to those areas and make the effort to send a message of hope.

What's more, and I mentioned about this in an earlier blog post, but our messages were wrongly communicated. They were too generic. They were too focused on saving the Union and condemning the SNP's independence plans. They were too patronising, talking about "taking your needs" to Westminster. Well what are they? Its not good enough saying we'll take your needs to Parliament; a candidate or party should be setting out an agenda based on the aspirations of all the people.

I think one of the problems with politics now is that we have too many politicians who don't have the guts to be frank and honest with the electorate and say what they believe in, why they believe in what they believe in and how they want to implements their policies in Government. To an extent, they have listened to the people more in some areas, but need to do better in others. But that does not mean they just shy away from outlining their real opinion in public for fear that they may lose voters over their stances. That's why a lot of Eurosceptic voters denied David Cameron a majority in the House of Commons by voting for UKIP in marginal constituencies where the Conservatives lost crucial seats by majorities that were less than the number of votes for UKIP in those cruical seats.

We need to be more honest about reviving our economy. That means, campaigning for more tax varying powers in Holyrood and then after that campaigning for tax cuts across the board. Why? Because tax cuts will eventually lead to increased revenues and therefore more money for the public sector. The more you tax, the less tax receipts you receive. Why are we running away from that policy? Its a great policy. Its simple, yet effective. Lets champion more simple policies like those because it will win us votes and make a difference for the better for the people of Scotland.

I know this post was meant to focus much on social justice but to be honest it went further than that.