How the SNP has let Scotland's young people down
Every young person should have the opportunity to get a good job and a decent home
Last week, when we were out knocking doors, we ended up speaking to someone special, a first-time voter. Elections are about the future – and nothing represents that future more than the next generation of young Scots.
Just like the generations before them, they will redefine what it means to be Scottish, and what Scotland should stand for. This is all the more important when you think about the political context in which they’ve grown up.
Voters under 20 have never experienced anything other than the SNP in power. In other words, they have grown up under a government that churns out press releases but fails to improve the public services Scots rely on.
Scottish schools might once have been the envy of the world, but too often, for young Scots, they are challenging places where overworked teachers don’t have the time to give them the attention they need.
The youth clubs, swimming pools and local parks that their parents and grandparents used to hang out in are falling into disrepair due to the SNP’s serial underfunding of councils.
And while the 10,000 kids stuck in temporary accommodation are already experiencing Scotland’s housing crisis first-hand, Scots in their early 20s will be looking at the rental market and wondering how they can ever afford to live independently.
Given this gloomy backdrop, it would have been completely understandable if our first-time voter on the doorstep had simply slammed the door and said she wasn’t interested in politics. But, in fact, the opposite happened.
While her mum hadn’t thought about the election, this first-time voter interrupted to say she was voting Scottish Labour because she’d seen Anas Sarwar’s pledge to create 9,000 new skilled apprenticeships on YouTube. She wanted change – and a chance to shape her own future.
Young people are already benefiting from the UK Labour government’s changes, such as a rise in the minimum wage and the reinstatement of the Erasmus scheme allowing them opportunities to study in Europe, but they also deserve more from Holyrood.
That’s why Scottish Labour wants to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to get a good job and a decent home. As well as more apprenticeships, a Scottish Labour government will hire 2,000 more teachers and 1,500 classroom assistants so that young people have every chance to succeed and our schools regain their place in the international league tables.
We will invest in youth and community services so that young people grow up feeling part of their local area, not excluded from it.
And we will tackle Scotland’s housing challenges by building 125,000 new homes and saving first-time buyers up to £1,100 through raising the threshold for first-time buyers’ relief on the LBTT property tax.
For the first time in their lives, Scottish voters under 21 have the chance to change the government. Scotland’s greatest resource is our people – it’s an opportunity none of us can afford to miss.
Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health
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