Yes Hamilton

19/02/2025

14/02/2025

SNP MSP Christina McKelvie has called out Labour’s “hypocrisy on stilts” and said that free tuition fees for students in Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse are only safe under the SNP. 🎓

Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, claimed yesterday that Labour would maintain the SNP’s policy of free tuition fees if it were elected at Holyrood. 🗣️💬

The claim comes despite the fact that it was Sarwar’s Labour Party which first introduced fees back in 1998, imposed back-door fees in Scotland through the graduate endowment, and then subsequently voted against the abolition of the tax by the SNP in 2008. 😳🥀

Tuition fees in England have risen to £9,535 since Labour came to power last year, whilst fees have also risen in Labour-run Wales. Meanwhile, Sarwar’s own finance spokesperson Michael Marra hinted last year that the party would examine models to reintroduce some form of charges in Scotland. 💸📉

Record numbers of students from our most deprived areas in Scotland are going to university due to the SNP’s continued support for free tuition. 📚🏫

SNP MSP Christina McKelvie said:

“Under the SNP, we have record numbers of Scottish students securing places at our universities, and recent figures showed a rise in students from our most disadvantaged communities. 📊👩‍🎓👨‍🎓

“This progress has only been made possible because the SNP abolished Labour's tuition fees and we will never let them be reimposed on students from Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse." ✊

24/01/2025

Taken from a letter from Andy Anderson in the National today.

I am writing to The National today to tell everyone we have won this debate. The parliament’s admin body have accepted our petition, which they told us they could not do if we were asking parliament to do something which they had no legal power to do. So by listing our petition as drafted by us, they acknowledge that the Scottish Parliament has the legal authority to do what we ask in the petition.

Angus Robertson MSP has written to us on behalf of the First Minister to confirm that the Scottish Parliament has this power.

So all we need to ensure that the Scottish people will have the dominant say in this debate is for the petition we have listed to get the support of the Scottish Parliament now, and be implemented. We could then have a referendum on any political issue we wanted to and could not be challenged by the UK Supreme Court.

That’s right, I repeat, anyone in Scotland can right now go to the Scottish Parliament website, go to view petitions, select petition number PE2135, read it and, if they support it, complete it.

Signatories will be demanding that the Scottish Parliament act to protect their human rights and their right to have a referendum on any political matter they wish if 1% of the Scottish people support this.

Please act today, and ask other to do the same. If you do this you will be taking an effective step to break this paralysis.

I signed it today - Jim Savage

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that, prior to the next Holyrood parliamentary election, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is given full legal effect in the devolved law making process.