Ted Brocklebank
- Name:
- Ted Brocklebank
- Party:
- Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party
- Constituency:
- North East Fife
- Election result May 2003:
- 8424 votes (28.77%), second of five candidates
Elected as MSP from Mid Scotland and Fife region
- Election literature available in Aspect:
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- Election policy statement:
- In meetings and surveys carried out by Ted Brocklebank throughout NE Fife it is clear that the spiralling rise in crime is a top priority among local families and shopkeepers.
Under the Labour-Lib Dem Holyrood coalition violent crime in Scotland has soared by 25% and drug-related crime by 24%. Despite claims that the Scottish Executive was to be 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime', in the parliament's first four years Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, has in fact been 'soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime'. As knife attacks in Scotland have doubled, Jim Wallace has been forced to abandon such wishy-washy ideas as the extension of the Children's Panel system to 16 and 17 year-olds when it cannot even cope with younger offenders, as well as the proposed closure of Peterhead prison with its pioneering sex offenders unit.
Ted Brocklebank's solution to NE Fife's rising crime levels is to campaign for more CCTV cameras and to get more bobbies back on the beat.
"Labour and the LibDems have failed completely to address the problems of youth crime," he declares. "Scottish Conservatives believe it is time to overhaul the youth justice system and increase the number of places in secure accommodation to get persistent offenders off the streets. To combat the evils of drugs and violent crime, Scotland needs to recruit at least a thousand extra police officers. What NE Fife needs is effective community policing, backed up by CCTV cameras, to detect and deter crime."
Ted Brocklebank pledges
1. Get more bobbies back on the beat and provide more CCTV cameras
2. Get hospital waiting lists down and make patients the number one priority
3. Get a new secondary school for NE Fife and ensure classroom discipline is maintained
4. Fight for our local fishing industry disgracefully abandoned by the Scottish Executive
5. Fight for the ratepayers of NE Fife, wilfully neglected by Fife Council
"Right to roam"
Access to the Scottish countryside has always been governed by good manners, custom and voluntary agreements.
Unless damage was caused, there was no such offence as trespass under Scots law. Now under its Land Reform legislation, the urban-dominated Scottish Executive has introduced confrontation where none existed.
The so-called 'right to roam' is in fact a charter to wander at will, and not only over large estates. Smallholders, market gardeners, berryfield operators, woodland owners, pig farmers, caravan site dwellers and livery stable owners are among those whose privacy can now be invaded by 'ramblers' and others, The legislation virtually ignores the question of liability: so if somebody is injured while walking over your property you could well be liable. Ted Brocklebank will fight to get this envy-ridden legislation off the statute book.
Local Fishing
The NE Fife fishing industry has been virtually destroyed by a combination of over-fishing by others, wrong-headed EU conservation efforts and lack of support by Westminster and Holyrood administrations. Ted Brocklebank will fight to protect the local fishing industry and back Conservative policy either completely to overhaul the CFP or withdraw from it as soon as allow.
Ted Brocklebank: Fighting for Education
Labour and LibDem politicians have dragged their feet for two decades about the need for a new secondary school for NE Fife.
The case, originally made by Conservatives, is now irrefutable, especially with 500 new RAF families arriving at Leuchars. Ted Brocklebank will fight to ensure that Fife Council gives the new school the go-ahead in the interests of the several hundreds of pupils bussed every day to St. Andrews and Cupar and also to relieve the roll at Madras College, currently the second biggest school in Scotland.
TED BROCKLEBANK ON LOCAL CRIME
North East Fife has not escaped the rising tide of crime under the Lab-Lib Holyrood Coalition. Towns and villages throughout the constituency have seen crime and vandalism levels rising in line with the national increase of 25% since 1999. Drug-related crime is also on the increase, It's time to overhaul the youth justice system and increase the number of places in secure accommodation to get persistent offenders off the streets. If drug addicts refuse treatment they should go to jail. We need effective community policing backed up by CCTV cameras to detect and deter crime.
TED BROCKLEBANK ON EDUCATION
The case for a new school at the Tay bridgehead is unanswerable. Yet Labour-controlled Fife Council and Nicol Stephen, the Lab-Lib education minister, refuse to give a commitment, despite the fact that Madras College, the second biggest secondary school in Scotland, is physically unable to accept any more pupils,
Scots students attending St. Andrews University and Elmwood College should also understand that Executive claims to have abolished tuition fees are simply not true. All the Lab-Libs have done is reintroduce them as part of a punitive graduate tax after students have completed their degrees. Conservatives will abolish tuition fees totally, and student 'loans' will not have to be paid back before graduates are earning £20,000 a year.
TED BROCKLEBANK ON FISHING
The East Neuk fishing industry has contracted alarmingly in the past decade. As more than a million pounds have been wiped off the value of local landings more than 100 jobs have disappeared. I believe local prawn, shellfish and white fishermen should be given more than the empty words of sympathy from the current MSP. If elected, I pledge to vote for the fishermen and backup industries of the East Neuk, not toe the Holyrood line for personal advantage. Conservative policy is to restore national control of Scottish fisheries. I will accept nothing less for Pittenweem, Anstruther and the other East Neuk fishing communities.
TED BROCKLEBANK ON HOSPITAL PROVISION
After years of false starts and dashed hopes the promised new North East Fife hospital seems as far away as ever. Although a site has been identified at St Leonard's Fields, St. Andrews, developers have now applied for planning permission to build new houses on parts of the selected site. I will fight to secure an early decision on the hospital plans. Councillors and planners must consider carefully any decisions they come to about St. Leonard's Fields in the realisation of what might be gained and what irretrievably lost if ad hoc housing proposals are allowed to go ahead.
- Personal details used in election:
- I was born, educated and brought up in North East Fife and can remember the vibrant, prosperous community it once was. This part of Scotland was the crowning place of Scottish kings and queens, as well as the historical playground of Royalty. It has always been regarded as one of the jewels in the crown of Scotland. If elected as your MSP I pledge to work tirelessly to make it that way again.
- Further information:
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http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/ted_brocklebank/