CLIMATE change and independence top Edinburgh Southern residents’ concerns as Catriona MacDonald pitches her bid to take the seat back from Labour.
With some international citizens living in Scotland able to vote for the first time in this election, MacDonald has put her knowledge of languages to good use and racked up thousands of views on campaign videos in Chinese, French and Spanish. The seat is filled with those key EU and other international voters, as well as many young people who study in the city or are still at school.
With incumbent Daniel Johnson’s majority only 1123 votes, MacDonald thinks these voters will be essential to her taking the seat. When we interviewed MacDonald near Bruntsfield Links where a new quiet route had been put in place, one cyclist on his way past shouted, “good luck next week”. With the impact of the pandemic and more residents staying local, the climate crisis has been a hot topic amongst voters, and the SNP seem to be cutting through.
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MacDonald explained: “Residents here like new infrastructure that helps them to cycle, walk or wheel more safely. I think people are interested in being quite ambitious with that and redesigning our city and our communities to centre around active travel and active transport in a way that means they can go about their normal lives while not worry about contributing to the climate crisis.
“We have a really diverse community here, lots of EU citizens and lots of people working in things like education and the financial sector that are really impacted by Brexit. Aside from that the overriding issue is the climate crisis, this is an area where there’s been a lot of local engagement with things like active travel and transport policy. It’s quite a young constituency so there’s quite a few high schools, and young people are really concerned, from when I’ve been speaking to young people the biggest issue is the climate crisis, and issues like Brexit and independence are tied into that.”
Asked why she believes independence would benefit residents in Edinburgh Southern, MacDonald said: “We need the full powers of independence to work on the global stage in the fight against the climate crisis, in the fight for a more just world. We need the full financial powers of independence particularly to tackle the housing crisis by investing in a mass housebuilding programme and to tackle poverty. These are the levers that other countries have, other successful, wealthy, medium-sized countries like Scotland have that we currently don’t have and we need.”
The National spoke to residents in the area and found that independence and climate change top their priority list, with many saying they already saw Scotland as a different country than the rest of the UK. Adrian Harris, 69, retired, said he would be voting for the SNP on the constituency vote, Green on the list vote and that independence is the most important issue for him in this election. He said: “To me, independence is the most important issue because that way we can begin to sort out and have complete autonomy over already existing policies. So, when we get into the debate about could Scotland have managed the Covid pandemic if it was an independent country, if it had the same borrowing rights as the UK Government then I believe, yes it could.
“I think there will be a period of pain and discomfort actually when independence arrives and if the SNP showed the same degree of honesty around that debate as they did having to try and deal with Covid, I think that would actually work with people. They need to be honest about it, it is going to be hard but it’s going to be worth it.”
Sophie Carragher, 30, a dog walker and trainer, also backs independence and said she would be giving both votes to the SNP. She said: “I would love independence for Scotland and I will keep voting for them until we get that. I have a lot of faith in the SNP, I just agree with their values, the way Nicola Sturgeon does things and she’s quite a respectable person. I think she comes across as honest and she is a lot more open about what she’s doing than other politicians.
READ MORE: Key Battleground: How the SNP hope to take this Tory stronghold
“I think for me I see Scotland as a separate country, I have family down south and they have completely different views and their views get represented and the way they want things to work – it works for them but up here it’s not the same. If Scotland had more power to get what they wanted then things would work for us as well, I don’t hate England or anything, I just think it would be a better form of representation.”
Patricia McMaster, 46, optometrist, said she would be voting SNP for her first vote and Green for her second and said she backed independence.
She said: “It’s hard to sum up but I think Scotland could do better. I don’t like the nuclear issue and that is one big thing for me, I think the health service would be run better if it was more localised. I think one of the nice things about having a local Parliament is if you need something that needs raised you can get in, you can get seen and you can get it to the highest level and get it possibly addressed. We don’t stand a chance of that in Westminster.”
But Labour still has a strong support. Keith Weir (above), 59, a shop worker, said: “I would probably verge on Labour, I just feel that they do more for ordinary people like myself. I like the SNP, I think Sturgeon’s doing a good job. I’m not really into independence.”
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