Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay today accused the SNP of turning Scotland into a “laboratory for weird and wacky policies”.
In a speech on the main stage at the UK party conference in Manchester, Findlay criticised a series of “woke” policy ideas proposed by the Nationalists.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Scotland can lay claim to many of history’s great thinkers and pioneers. We’re the country of Adam Smith, the father of capitalism. Of David Hume, the great moral philosopher. And the many Scots who helped forge the greatest empire in the history of the world.
“But under the SNP, Scotland has become a laboratory for weird and wacky policies. For the SNP, no policy can be too harmful, half-baked or unhinged.
“From rent controls, to a universal basic income, to a four-day working week. If it’s woke, they want it.”
Full text of speech (check against delivery):
Conference, how fantastic it is to be here with you again.
Almost exactly one year ago, I was elected leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party.
A few weeks after that, the outstanding Kemi Badenoch was elected our UK leader.
We both knew that we had a tough fight on our hands.
We knew then – just as we know now – that we are fighting for the future of our great country.
And let me tell you – we are up for this scrap.
Because left in the hands of Labour and the SNP, the United Kingdom’s future would be bleak.
Weaker and divided. Smaller and poorer.
Under the left-wing politics of Keir Starmer and John Swinney, the only growth would be the debt left to future generations.
I want our young people to have hope for the future.
Our party and our country believe in the power of aspiration.
We stand for something that no other party truly does – advancing opportunity for those willing to work hard.
Reaping the rewards for hard graft.
We stand for the strivers.
We stand for those who create jobs and wealth.
And conference, that is why we are in this fight.
That’s why the Conservative and Unionist Party must – and will – emerge stronger.
Where we seek a stronger and fairer economy, Labour thinks very differently.
They want everyone to pay more tax… except Angela Rayner.
Labour have broken so many promises.
All that’s left of their manifesto are pictures of Sir Keir Starmer in clothes that someone else paid for… next to people he’s sacked… or those who he should sack.
Then there’s the SNP.
Scotland can lay claim to many great thinkers and pioneers.
The country of Adam Smith, the father of capitalism.
Of David Hume, the great moral philosopher.
And the many Scots who helped forge the Great British Empire.
But under the SNP, Scotland has become a laboratory for weird and wacky policies.
For the SNP, no policy can be too harmful, half-baked or unhinged.
From rent controls, to a universal basic income, to a four-day working week.
If it’s woke, they want it.
They embrace every madcap idea known to man and woman.
Yes, man and woman, because we Conservatives know that there are two genders – not two dozen as the SNP believe.
The architect of the SNP’s gender self-ID law was Nicola Sturgeon.
And an arch-opponent of it was Kemi Badenoch.
Our party killed it stone dead.
And now Sturgeon is quitting the Edinburgh parliament.
You could call it a political jailbreak.
But, friends, don’t get too carried away, because I have to warn you.
The new SNP leader John Swinney only offers more of the same division and decay.
He was Nicola Sturgeon’s obedient deputy.
He’s been obsessed with breaking up the UK from the age of 15.
He probably reckons that Braveheart is a documentary.
Conference, please indulge me, I will reference Mel Gibson’s famous Braveheart battle cry of ‘Freedom’.
Because that word actually sums up what next year’s vital Scottish Parliament election is really all about.
The people of Scotland don’t want independence, but they do want greater freedom.
That’s the freedom to keep more of their hard-earned money…
Not pay more tax than people in the rest of Britain for doing the same job.
Small businesses want freedom from the SNP’s relentless barrage of rules and regulations.
Ordinary people want freedom to speak openly, not constrained by Humza Yousaf’s chilling hate crime law.
It really is a great irony that the party of so-called independence has trashed so many of our freedoms.
As the party of the Union, we want to give back freedom and control to the people of Scotland.
Control over their own lives, their own decisions, their own money.
That’s what we proudly stand for as Scottish Conservatives and Unionists.