Over the last several months, since my selection as Scottish Labour’s candidate standing to represent our wonderful, unique constituency of Argyll & Bute, I’ve met a great number of people in the diverse range of island and rural mainland communities, inland and coastal, across our region.
Many I’ve met have been supportive of Scottish Labour, including long-time backers of the movement for a socially democratic, fairer and more progressive, people-powered nation. Despite the endless negative headlines and frustration at a perceived lack of progress since the Labour landslide victory in the 2024 UK general election, they can also see the good done so far by the Labour UK Government and the early signs proving that repairs have been made, two years in, after fourteen years of damage done by successive Tory governments.
I’ve met others who historically voted Labour in years gone by, haven’t done so in a long time, but will vote Labour this time again, disillusioned with what has been the party of government in Scotland for nearly two decades.
Many others have found it more difficult than ever before to make a choice in this election, feeling like they have no political home, having sadly lost all faith in the power of politics to make things better for them, their families, and their communities.
Of all those I’ve met in these months of campaigning, canvassing, meeting community groups, attending hustings and corresponding by email and by post with the people of Argyll & Bute, one group stands out as facing a particularly painful decision: those who feel they are ‘prisoners’ of the SNP, a party they have lost all confidence in to govern and lead Scotland, but feel they have no choice but to support anyway, solely due to their personal stance on Scottish independence.
On multiple occasions I’ve had folks contact me or approach me with encouraging words, commending me for my position on the issues facing our people, and making it clear that of the candidates standing for election in our beautiful corner of the country, I’m the person they would overwhelmingly prefer to see representing them in the Scottish Parliament.
The catch, however, is this – they know that I’m standing with a party that is opposed to the breaking up of the UK. Despite admitting that they know without a doubt that the SNP is not capable of reversing the decline Scotland faces and therefore does not deserve to win, and certainly does not deserve to form another mediocre government to stagger on for another five years of stagnation – they feel genuinely trapped into taking the only option that they hope will take a step toward independence, no matter how small or uncertain that step may be.
This is the toxic idea of independence at any cost – the frankly harmful view that it matters more than our hospitals, our schools, our roads and our ferries, our economy – that none of these vital, real-world things matter as much as chasing after an opportunity to ask again the same question that Scots definitively answered barely over a decade ago.
Whether it is a fantastical, utopian dream that folks are holding onto, whether it is sheer dogma, or simply hope for an escape from what seems like an endless cycle of Scotland not going as far as we all know it could – this view is, at its core, a damaging and risky mistake to make.
That’s because, as I have said to many of those folks, a vote for the status quo is not a vote for independence. An SNP majority or even a super-majority in the Scottish Parliament would not make a blind bit of difference to the reality that the question of independence has been settled, and will remain settled, potentially forever, and at the very least for many decades, beyond the lifespan of many who are casting their votes this week.
What a vote for the status quo will achieve, however, is the consignment of Scotland to another five years of low quality government, a secretive, dishonest obsession over optics and appearances over substantive, meaningful leadership, and nothing less than ongoing decline for Scotland, at the expense of our cost of living, our quality of living, and the immediate future of our families and communities.
Without a real change of direction, which means a change of government, Scotland will remain stuck where we are, and will not become a better place to live, work and do business.
Scottish Labour, however, is not interested in pleading for a chance to ask again the same question that’s already been firmly answered. Scottish Labour are instead laser-focused on the real-world things that matter – healthcare, education, infrastructure, our economy – and I am too.
We’re not going to be distracted by bickering with counterparts in London over the constitution, we only want to fix the mess and pick Scotland out of this rut to build a better future we can all share in.
Folks across Argyll & Bute have repeatedly expressed to me this sense that they’ve been left behind – that we’re an afterthought. That things are getting worse, not better. Why vote for more of the same? We need a new government with vision and drive, with maturity and professionalism at its core, and with honesty and integrity at its heart – values sorely lacked by the ruling party in Holyrood over the last two decades.
I urge everyone who is undecided, or who feels ‘trapped’ by the false lure of progress towards independence, to think hard about the major, practical things that affect your day-to-day life and the importance of having those fixed, right now, by a new government that is a competent and safe pair of hands.
For Argyll & Bute, I won’t be a puppet of a centralised bureaucracy, or a yes-man who forgets the real purpose of his job. I’ll be your visible, trusted and reliable, responsive partner, a true constituency MSP, bringing your voices to government. Instead of soundbites and pointless reports, I’ll be delivering tangible progress for all of you – regardless of whether you are a supporter of independence or pro-UK.
This election is a huge opportunity. I have faith in the people of Argyll & Bute and of Scotland not to squander it.
Dr Callum George MBChB MRes BSc (Hons)
Parliamentary Candidate for Argyll & Bute
Scottish Labour Party
