The Leith Ward by-election features the first appearance in Scottish electoral politics of new political party, The For Britain Movement. For Britain was founded by former UKIP leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters in March 2018 and became active in Scotland after Waters’ speech in Glasgow in August 2018.
Paul Stirling, a well-travelled drama teacher and family man, aged 41, is the For Britain candidate in the Leith Walk ward by-election on Thursday 11 April 2019 . Stirling says: ” I am standing on a platform of: Ending Mass Immigration, Brexit Now! No If, Buts or Bills!, Making the Public Sector accountable and transparent, Lowering Taxes and Ending Waste.”
“In line with For Britain’s pro-freedom stance, I am also concerned about government involvement in family life and encroachment on parental authority. The Named Person legislation is particularly worrying and needs to be stopped.Excluding extreme cases parents are the final arbitrators of their children’s well-being not the government and it is not any particular party’s right to demand that parents acquiesce to a particular political philosophy in the raising of their children.”
“I am a pro Free Speech advocate and to that end also believe that where education is concerned, the Curriculum for Excellence needs an overhaul to remove any dominant political ideology from its guidelines and documents of implementation etc. Schools should be focusing on fostering the enjoyment of academic excellence not creating activists with a particular world view.”
Stirling is supported by the branch chairman of For Britain Edinburgh, Stephen Cowley. Church historian Cowley is the author of Rational Piety and Social Reform (Wipf and Stock, 2015), a biography of Scottish liberal philosopher and churchman James Mylne (1757-1839).
Cowley said: “Paul Stirling is an excellent candidate whose political thinking promises to add new dimensions to Edinburgh City Council’s deliberations, based on the ideas of liberty, personal responsibility and support for the natural structures of society.
“In meeting with electors, several people have told us that they agree with our thinking, but are afraid to express their views publicly for fear of reprisal by politically correct individuals in positions of responsibility. We hope that we can help end this climate of fear and broaden the range of Scottish political debate, starting on election day on 11 April 2019. We will speak for the forgotten majority of electors.”
The candidates in the Leith Walk by-election are:
Steven Alexander, UK Independence Party (UKIP)
Jack Caldwell, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Nick Gardner, Scottish Labour Party
Kevin Illingworth, Independent
David Don Jacobsen, Socialist Labour Party
Tom Laird, Scottish Libertarian Party
Dan McCroskrie, Scottish Conservative and Unionist
Rob Munn, Scottish National Party (SNP)
John Ferguson Scott, Independent
Lorna Slater, Scottish Green Party
Paul Mitchell Stirling, The For Britain Movement
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“Forgotten majority of electors” – This bunch got 14 votes in a ward with electorate of over 25,000! Some majority…
True, the people have spoken! Of more concern, though, is just how few of the people ‘spoke’. Just one in three could be bothered to cast their vote. Our democracy is not in a healthy state.