Vote for Scottish Tories to keep democracy alive

OPPOSITION matters in any democracy, but it matters especially in a Parliament dominated for nearly two decades by one party that has grown accustomed to power and resistant to challenge.

- Stephen Kerr Scottish Conservative MSP

At Holyrood, for the past ten years, the Scottish Conservatives have been that challenge. Consistent. Unafraid. Effective. And Scotland needs us returned in strength at the next Scottish Parliament election. That record matters.

Where Labour and the Liberal Democrats have too often acted as cheerleaders for the SNP's most damaging policies, it has been only the Scottish Conservatives who have stood in firm opposition.

When the SNP has pushed for a bigger state, higher taxes, more regulation and greater centralisation, they have largely gone along with it.

When government has sought to intrude further into people's lives, their families and businesses, they have offered little more than procedural concern or cosmetic amendment. That has left the Scottish Conservatives, on too many occasions, as the only party prepared to say no.

On gender reform, we stood against every other party to voice the concerns of many women across Scotland, concerns the political establishment chose to dismiss or demonise.