WILLIE Rennie launched the Scottish Liberal Democrat manifesto with a promise to cut taxes, balance the budget and a pledge to guarantee education funding from nursery to college.
Rennie also promised the party would invest an additional £800m into the NHS in Scotland.
The manifesto also commits the party to a widespread reform of Scotland’s drug laws.
The party will adopt the Portuguese system that de-criminalises possession and legalises cannabis for ‘medicinal purposes’.
Rennie stressed his party had a “vision of the future”.
“We are now closer to our ambition of creating opportunity for everyone”, he said. “But with wins for the Liberal Democrat in this election we can make it a decade of opportunity”.
The MSP said that it would make no sense to have the SNP in charge of a British government that their party exists to undermine.
“We’re prepared to work with the SNP in other areas, and we have done so in councils and we have done it in the Scottish Parliament,” he said. “But it is unreasonable to put them in charge of an institution they are against.
“You could just imagine Alex Salmond, deputy prime minister, and as soon as you have turned your back he’s got his screwdriver out trying to take the country apart.”
The Liberal Democrats are defending 11 MPs at this general election, although recent polls suggest that their support has fallen away substantially.
Rennie said he hoped people would ‘vote intelligently’ to keep the SNP out: “In the 11 seats we hold, it’s very clear if you want to stop the SNP, the Liberal Democrats are best-placed to do that.
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