'Scotland's future isn't for Starmer or Farage to decide'

I recently attended the SNP national conference in Aberdeen.

While the assumption is these political conferences tend to involve everyone meeting up to agree with each other and then leaving, this isn't entirely true.

The priorities that matter to the public were at the forefront.

That was most evident with the First Minister's announcement of new drop-in health centres.

These will operate seven days a week, from noon to 8pm.

No appointment will be necessary.

The service will be staffed by GPs and nurses.

This will ensure people with busy lives can get the care they need when they need it, identifying and treating problems earlier to prevent bigger issues developing.

That's delivering on the people’s priorities.

There were a host of other highlights at the conference.

Two that are close to my heart are transport and community wealth building.

There was a lively SPT event which had a broad discussion on buses, including the current process to bring buses in the Glasgow region back under public control.

I also had the chance to chat with Social Enterprise Scotland about the excellent work social enterprises do, part of the wider community wealth building approach.

It wouldn't be an SNP conference if independence wasn't on the agenda.

On the first full day of the conference, there was a lengthy debate about our offering on independence at next year's Scottish Parliament election.

We will go into that election asking Scotland to elect an SNP majority government to deliver independence.

An SNP majority is, of course, the only proven way of delivering an independence referendum, as happened following the 2011 election.

It's important though to highlight why independence is essential for our country, for our communities and for everyone in Scotland.

We've had some difficult years with Brexit and Boris, Liz Truss, Sunak and now Starmer.

The frightening reality is, it's not going to get any better.

Inflation is on the rise and Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already started to talk about tax rises and spending cuts, to go with her previous tax rises and spending cuts.

Liz Truss may have crashed the economy in double quick time — Reeves' management of the economy is like watching a car crash in slow motion.

At next year's election, Anas Sarwar wants you to elect him First Minister so that he can bring Keir Starmer's mess to Scotland.

The question that must be asked if Labour were to win that election is which policies delivered by the SNP will they scrap to mitigate their inability to manage public finances appropriately?

Free prescriptions, free university tuition, free bus travel?

The picture back at UK level gets more concerning with the rise of Reform.

Successive UK Labour and Conservative governments have failed and that is leading many to consider voting Reform.

Nigel Farage, the man who told you to vote for Brexit to bring immigration down, is now telling you to vote for him because immigration has gone up since Brexit happened.

Immigration is his main talking point, but it's only the tip of the iceberg.

Farage wants to cut public spending more than Labour or the Tories and still believes in privatising our NHS.

There is one clear way to protect Scotland from Farage, to escape Starmer's mediocrity and to prevent Sarwar's tribute act — by voting SNP.

Vote SNP so we can choose a different path forward with independence.

Scotland's future isn't for Starmer or Farage to decide — it's your right to decide.