I'm a Tory MSP – my party needs a 'radical overhaul' to win

How on earth did I end up nigh on ten years in frontline Conservative politics? I blame Ruth Davidson. She moulded the Scottish Tories into a party where absolutely everyone was welcome. There were no stereotypes in 2016 when we defied the odds to become the ‘Strong Opposition’.

I was brought up in the Gibby, the working class Gibshill estate of Greenock. It was anything but fertile Tory territory. In a cross-sectarian family, in a home of alcohol and substance abuse and yes, domestic violence. Being called “gay” as a young lad instilled a lifelong battle against bigotry to which I still hold dear. Margaret Thatcher came to town once and she was pelted with eggs. Not by me, but you get the gist.

It was aspiration that got me out of my predicament and a deep sense of fairness that if you want to get on in life you have to work your butt off to get it. Governments of all colours had kept families like mine in inter-generational poverty, then if you did have aspiration they would hammer the hell out of you for being successful. 

People know how to spend their money better than governments pretend to. Those are the reasons I got cross and into politics. My background shaped who I am and what I believe in. I’ve fought the front line of Holyrood politics through some tough times, and it’s for that same reason I’m fighting tooth and nail to ensure the centre right of our politics isn’t lost to false promises.

I believe the majority of Scots share our pragmatic values and actually quite like many of our policies but have simply fallen out with our brand and image. No amount of spin or ambitious opinion pieces will fix that.

Here’s the reality check, folks.

Cummingsgate, Partygate, BettingGate, DDaygate, Rwanda, the two-child cap, the so-called rape clause, the endless gaffes, U-turns, leadership coups and policies over which we had no control and generally no say or sway. 

Every good deed north of the border was cancelled out by a party failure south of it.

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It can’t go on like this. I for one didn’t get into politics to endlessly apologise for the errors of others. So empty promises of a “change agenda” or fear-mongering over future donation money don’t change the fact that nobody really knows what the Scottish Conservative Party stands for, more what we stand against.

Our members and activists need something positive to fight for, and that must start at the top. A slap of paint on our front door won’t make it more welcoming to newcomers or old friends; a radical overhaul of our proposition to moderate, sensible, centre right voters and younger people will at least force it ajar.

I want centre-right readers to ask themselves, what is the end goal?

For me, it is to affect change. Sometimes that means getting into an argy-bargy with the left, as I did with their EU Bill to water down Brexit, or the Transport Bill which hammered working folk as Shadow Transport Secretary.

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Having real power in politics also means getting things done, even if that means working constructively across the aisle, which is how I got the SNP to scrap the ‘Not Proven’ verdict as Shadow Justice Secretary.

My critics accuse me of being a ‘Liberal Conservative’. You’re damn right I am. That’s how you win elections. Let’s be honest, right now the centre-right has no roadmap to Government in Scotland.

How many young people do you know queuing up to be part of our movement? How are we attracting the next generation of blue-collar Gibby voters? How will we engineer a route to power which results in Scotland’s first centre-right government of the devolution era?

We’ve talked enough about how to limit the SNP’s power, now it’s time to talk about how to build our own. 

Jamie Greene is the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party MSP for West Scotland