Scottish Liberal Democrat Lead List Candidate Katy Gordon joined Isabel Nelson, Candidate for Pollok and Lib Dem activitists to greet the ‘save local policing’ car at the Science Centre in Glasgow today.
The car started its national tour today, launched by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott and Alistair Carmichael, Deputy Government Chief Whip.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats are the only main party in this election campaigning against a single, centralised police force for Scotland.
Commenting after the launch, Mr Scott said:
“There are 9 days to save local policing and stop police jobs being cut.
“Rank and file police officers across Scotland tell us that bringing politics into policing is wrong. Scotland’s top police officers warn that 3,000 officers would be lost with a single police force. So SNP, Labour and Tory policies on police numbers and crime are bogus and misleading. Anything those parties say on police numbers should be taken down and used in evidence against them.
“We don’t want police officers paying for an expensive re-organisation with their jobs. That doesn’t make Scotland safer.
“We are the only main party campaigning against a single police force. I want to see decisions about community policing in Inverness taken by Northern Constabulary, not a centralised, single police force. A National police force where the National Police Chief would take his orders directly from the First Minister.
“We want to keep policing local and so do hard working police officers across Scotland.”
Katy added:
“This is as much of a real issue in the backstreets of Maryhill as in the hills and glens of the Highlands. Local people are worried about crime and want their local police to respond to local concerns when they raise them. How is that going to be improved if everything is centralised?”
