General election: In the marginal seat of North East Fife, it’s all to play for

Published

9 months ago

June 16, 2024

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In the marginal seat of North East Fife in this election, it is not a straight fight between red and blue, but shades of yellow too.

In 2017, the SNP won here by just two votes ahead of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. That astonishing two-vote tipping point made it the UK’s most marginal seat at the time.

But in 2019, the Lib Dems won it from the SNP, giving the party one of its four MPs in Scotland.

Today, Lib Dem posters line the winding road that takes you to Anstruther’s waterfront.

It’s a charming fishing village and overlooking the harbour are quaint restaurants and gift shops – handmade soap, whisky and fresh fish – it’s all on offer.

With this allure comes a melee of tourists who join us as we hop to each business, talking to them about how the campaigns have resonated with them here.

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“The tourists are a big part of this area for us,” says Tom Cooper, who’s owned his whisky gift shop for over six years.

He’s even had a few celebrities pop by.

“We get up to eight to nine tourist buses each day in the summer, if we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t survive,” he adds.

He loves having them dropped off outside his door, but the tourist season isn’t long enough to make the off-season easier.

“When it’s very, very quiet, you’re talking maybe four months of the year with maybe a six or seven hours a day, that you’re not doing very much. And you can’t really drag people in the door.

“We need to bring people in. The villages needs money. You know, that’s that’s where the economy lies, I think, in the future.”

And when at the ballot box, Tom says it’ll be his shop at the forefront of his mind.

“I look for somebody that’s going to help businesses like myself, small businesses, and keep the high streets going, get people out,” he says.

This is one of the constituencies to have had its boundary lines redrawn.

Changes have now led to areas with higher levels of deprivation being added to the North East Fife seat.

Away from the picturesque coastline, further inland there are signs of a lack of investment and care.

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Glenrothes shopping centre stands partially derelict.

“That’s been like that for about six years,” someone comments, as we look on at the peeling sides of a building and faded shop signage.

This constituency has one of the highest levels of child poverty.

“People are struggling, there are a lot of people not in work,” Chris Lewis, a business owner, tells us.

Chris runs an ice cream parlour, fish and chip bar and waterfront restaurant.

“Employment is what I care about, we need to lift people back to work on a decent wage,” he says.

“I would like to see everybody getting a job, then everybody could work hard and get people off benefits.”

Chris says he has been burnt by past promises.

“This area – whether Lib Dem and SNP – to me it seems they never seem to deliver.”

Chris adds: “There’s just so many promises and you think, you’ve had your time, can someone else do more for the country. We’re a very tourist-heavy area and we can’t afford to lose that. If Scotland loses its attraction, you know, we failed.”

The national narrative and the polls are having an impact on how he is feeling.

“I never thought I’d say it, but Labour are coming to mind, I think they’re going to do more for the country than the others.

“But who do you believe? There’s always promises. And when it comes down to how many are delivered, usually very few.”

We’ve met those across this constituency who intend to back Reform, SNP and Labour throughout the day.

A sign that even the most seemingly straightforward of seats is all to play for.

The list of candidates standing in North East Fife are:

Conservatives – Bill Bowman
Liberal Democrats – Wendy Chamberlain
Labour Party – Jennifer Gallagher
SNP – Stefan Hoggan-Radu
Scottish Green Party – Morven Ovenstone-Jones
Reform UK – Matthew Wren

Politics

DePIN needs thoughtful regulation — not lawsuits

Published

4 hours ago

March 9, 2025

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Politics

Richard Rice says Reform UK made ‘right judgement’ to suspend MP over allegations of bullying

Published

12 hours ago

March 9, 2025

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Richard Rice says Reform UK made 'right judgement' to suspend MP over allegations of bullying

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice has said it was “right” to suspend the MP at the centre of bullying and threat allegations.

The party announced on Friday that they had reported Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe to police following allegations of bullying made by two women and threats made against Reform’s chair.

Many have questioned the timing of the announcement, as it came the day after Mr Lowe appeared to question Nigel Farage‘s leadership of the party. Mr Lowe has denied all the allegations.

Mr Tice was asked why the incidents have only come to light now, when complaint were made to police in December.

He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “There’s been a variety of instances and you have to make difficult judgements through the process.

“But of course it’s unfortunate. Of course it’s difficult.

“But there are these allegations of bullying by two separate female members of staff to the parliamentary authorities. Those clearly have to be dealt with in the proper, responsible way.”

He added: “Rupert has been doing some great work on a variety of important issues, but ultimately, if you can’t work with someone, if the situation becomes impossible, which regrettably… then you have to say, this is not going to end well.

“And so we made the right judgement.”

Mr Tice also pointed out that if the party had brushed the incident “under the carpet” or tried to cover it up, then “everyone would’ve been raging”.

Asked if the situation was “fishy” due to the timing of the party’s pronouncement, Mr Tice strongly disagreed.

“The reality is, behind the scenes, there have been a number of difficulties and challenges, and you get to the point where you say, enough’s enough,” he said.

Mr Farage wrote in the Telegraph overnight, saying the party “did our best to keep a lid on things but, in the end, containment strategies invariably fail”.

Mr Tice said an incident with party chair Zia Yusuf recently was the catalyst for taking action against Mr Lowe.

Mr Lowe has vehemently denied the claims against him, and said he was targeted for challenging the way the party was being run.

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Posting on social media just before Mr Tice’s interview, Mr Lowe said this included his outspoken stance on wanting to deport all illegal migrants.

He said: “I have been warned by those at the top of Reform about my position on deportations. As you likely know from reading my extensive output on the subject, I did not listen to a word said.

“We need deportations, and lots of them.

“I make no apologies for stating that.”

Politics

UK has no plans for conscription – but future decisions will respond to ‘new reality’, says minister

Published

13 hours ago

March 9, 2025

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UK has no plans for conscription - but future decisions will respond to 'new reality', says minister

The UK is not considering introducing conscription to ready the country for a potential war – but decisions may be needed in the future to respond to the “new reality” we are now living in, a minister has told Sky News.

In an interview with Trevor Phillips, Latvian President Edgars Rinkeviks has urged European countries to follow his country’s lead and “absolutely” introduce conscription, conceding the continent is “quite weak” militarily.

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Asked if the UK government is considering introducing the measure to boost the armed forces, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said it is important the UK does not find itself operating under “old assumptions” – and that it may be “decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality”.

He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are not considering conscription, but of course we have announced a major increase in defence expenditure.

“We do have to recognise that the world has changed. The phrase ‘step up’ is used a lot. Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence.

“President Trump isn’t actually the first president to say that, but he said it more loudly and with more force than his predecessors – so, I think we have got to recognise that moment.”

‘UK cannot cling to old assumptions’

He added: “When the world is changing as fast as it is, it’s important that we don’t cling on to old assumptions.

“I think the prime minister has played a tremendous role in recent weeks in responding to that situation and explaining it to the public.

“That is why the decision on increasing defence expenditure was needed.

“It may be why other decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality, and that we don’t find ourselves caught operating under the same assumption as we used to in the past when the situation has changed.”

‘Battlefield is changing’

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP but has not set out when this will be achieved. Ministers say a defence review to be published this spring will set out a “roadmap” to it.

The number is much lower than the US president has demanded NATO members spend on defence, with Mr Trump saying they should all be spending 5% – an amount last seen during the Cold War.

Asked if the “new reality” involved a bigger army, Mr McFadden said ministers were waiting for the conclusion of the review.

But he added: “One thing is for sure, you would not spend money today on the same things as you would 10 years ago.

“The experience of the three years of the war in Ukraine has shown just how fast the battlefield is changing in terms of cyber, drones, the use of intelligence.”

History of conscription in UK

In the UK, military conscription has existed for two periods in modern times.

The first was from 1916 to 1920 following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, due to the dwindling number of volunteers for military service.

Lord Kitchener’s campaign – promoted by his famous “Your Country Needs You” poster – had encouraged more than one million men to enlist by January 1915. But this was not enough.

In January 1916, after much debate, the Military Service Act was passed. This imposed conscription on all single men aged between 18 and 41, but exempted the medically unfit, clergymen, teachers and certain classes of industrial worker.

Conscientious objectors – men who objected to fighting on moral grounds – were also exempt, and were given civilian jobs or non-fighting roles at the front.

Conscription was not applied to Ireland because of the 1916 Easter Rising, although many Irishmen volunteered to fight.

A second Act passed in May 1916 extended conscription to married men, and in 1918, during the last months of the war, the age limit was raised to 51.

Conscription was extended until 1920 to allow the army to deal with continuing trouble spots in the Empire and parts of Europe.

In the run-up to the Second World War, plans for limited conscription applying to single men aged between 20 and 22 were given parliamentary approval in the Military Training Act in May 1939. This required men to undertake six months’ military training.

When Britain declared war against Germany on 3 September 1939, the National Service (Armed Forces) Act imposed conscription on all males aged between 18 and 41.

Those medically unfit were exempt, as were others in key industries and jobs such as baking, farming, medicine, and engineering, while conscientious objectors had to appear before a tribunal to argue their reasons for refusing to join up.

In December 1941, a second National Service Act was approved, making all unmarried women and all childless widows between the ages of 20 and 30 liable to call-up.

The last conscription term ended in 1960, although many soldiers chose to continue in the service beyond 1963.

The Conservatives’ first policy announcement of last year’s general election campaign was that the party would introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds.

Asked if the Tories still stood by the plan which was in their manifesto, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are obviously not going to write our manifesto now, so I am not going to recommit to things in the previous manifesto.

“We’ll need to do the thinking properly. I am not going to speculate four years ahead of the election.

“I don’t think it was really exactly conscription that was being proposed, it was a National Citizen Service which is a bit different.

“The idea of getting younger people to do voluntary work and perform useful tasks is not a bad idea.”

Last year, Britain’s former top NATO commander told Sky News it was time to “think the unthinkable” and consider introducing conscription.

General Sir Richard Sherriff, ex-deputy supreme allied commander of the military organisation, said: “I think we need to get over many of the cultural hang-ups and assumptions, and frankly think the unthinkable.

“I think we need to go further and look carefully at conscription.”