A Guest Post by Allan Petrie

Scotland is at a crossroads. Communities across the country are frustrated, fearful and deeply concerned about the direction we are heading. From immigration to the state of our public services, the challenges we face are real. But here is the truth, under Westminster rule we will never have the power to address them properly. Only independence gives us the tools to take responsibility for our nation, our communities and our future.

In recent months, immigration has become a flashpoint across Scotland. Demonstrations have taken place outside hotels housing asylum seekers and the debate has been quickly hijacked by those on the far right. But let’s be absolutely clear, it is wrong to claim that everyone protesting these hotels is a racist or a member of the far right, that is simply not true.

Yes, extremist groups are exploiting these fears to fuel their own hateful agenda, but most people demonstrating are not driven by ideology, they are acting out of fear, anger and frustration.

Those fears are often rooted in misinformation, government incompetence and a lack of trust in the system.  When people see secrecy around hotel placements, read horror stories about trafficking gangs or hear about crimes being committed, it is no surprise they feel anxious.

But we must keep perspective, the majority of sexual abuse cases in Scotland are not carried out by asylum seekers, in fact, many perpetrators are homegrown including members of organisations like the EDL who themselves stir up hatred and division. The danger is not immigration itself, but the poisonous mix of misinformation and a broken justice system that feeds the fear.

Let’s not shy away from it, our courts also fail communities by handing out absurdly lenient sentences for serious crimes while jailing people for tweets, justice must mean justice and where crimes are committed by non-UK nationals, Scotland should have the same right as other countries to deport them. If you cannot respect the laws of this land, you cannot expect to stay here, that is not prejudice it  is common sense.

Another genuine source of frustration lies in overstretched public services, every one of us knows the pain of phoning the GP at 8am, sitting on hold for over an hour and being told there are no appointments left. It is natural for people to look for something, or someone, to blame, but blaming immigrants for this is a mistake.

The truth is that this is not an immigration problem, it is a political problem.

Westminster has chosen to underfund our health services for decades (every cut in England reduces Scotlands funding), while wasting billions on wars, bombs, guns and ammunition, those same wars create asylum seekers in the first place and then leave us to pick up the pieces without the resources we need.

Immigrants are not the reason your GP line is jammed. Government priorities4 are.

So where does this leave us? Do we keep letting Westminster stoke division, mismanage resources and deny Scotland the powers we need? Or do we finally take responsibility for our own future?

Independence gives us the opportunity to,

• Create an immigration system built on fairness, safety, and transparency.
• Reform justice so that serious crimes are met with serious consequences.
• Redirect money wasted on wars towards the NHS, housing, and schools.
• Restore faith in politics by putting decision making in the hands of the people who actually live here.

None of this is possible while Scotland remains tied to Westminster, as long as we are under their rule, we will only ever be reacting to their failures, not shaping our own solutions.

Those who protest outside immigration hotels are right to be angry but their anger is pointed in the wrong direction. It should not be directed at vulnerable people fleeing war and exploitation. It should be directed at the governments who created the chaos in the first place, and who continue to fail us at home.

Scotland deserves better and the only way we will ever get better is by taking full control of our own future.

Independence is not just a political option it is the only way to truly fix our broken system and give our people the respect, services, and security they deserve.

Its time to Elect those who want outcomes not Incomes.