Stevenson Announces Annual Surgery Tour

Banffshire & Buchan Coast SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson has announced details of his forthcoming surgery tour of local communities which commences on Tuesday 8 August.

This year will be the seventeenth such tour that Mr Stevenson has undertaken, covering 37 communities from Rothiemay in the far west to Boddam at the south-eastern end of the constituency and inland to Aberchirder, New Byth and Memsie.

Commenting, SNP MSP Mr Stevenson said:

"The annual surgery tour with my mobile office is always extremely enjoyable and I think also that people appreciate having their MSP come to their own community rather than having to go to one of my 'static' surgeries in a nearby town or village.

"Even in this age of electronic communications, people still value being able to have face-to-face contact with their elected representatives, which is important. It also gets me into some of our smaller communities which I may otherwise not have reason to visit during the course of a year."

Details of the tour are as follows:

Banffshire & Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson will be available for consultation in his Mobile Office at the following locations:

Tuesday 8 August

09.55 – 10.10 NEW BYTH – The Square
10.15 – 10.25 CRUDIE – lay by
10.35 – 10.45 FISHERIE – Craigwell Cotts
10.55 – 11.05 KING EDWARD – lay-by at Kirk
11.20 – 11.45 MACDUFF – School car park, Barnhill Rd
12.00 – 12.20 WHITEHILLS – Seafield Street
13.30 – 13.40 BOYNDIE – opp. Boyndie Centre
13.50 – 14.15 PORTSOY – Church Street
14.25 – 14.40 SANDEND – adj. phone box
14.50 – 15.10 CULLEN – The Square
15.15 – 15.30 PORTKNOCKIE – Hill Street
15.35 – 15.50 FINDOCHTY – Seaview Road near Chemist
16.00 – 16.15 RATHVEN – Main Road near Kirk

Wednesday 9 August

10.15 – 10.25 ALVAH – adj. Linhead Hall
10.35 – 10.50 FORGLEN – Bogton Row
11.05 – 11.30 ABERCHIRDER – The Square
11.50 – 12.10 ROTHIEMAY – near shop
13.30 – 13.45 KNOCK – adj. Post Box
14.00 – 14.15 CORNHILL – car park adj. park
14.30 – 14.45 FORDYCE – adj. Castle
14.55 – 15.10 LINTMILL - Burnside
15.20 – 15.35 DESKFORD – Comm. Centre car park
15.40 – 15.55 GRANGE – adj. Crossroads School

Thursday 10 August

09.45 – 10.00 GARDENSTOWN - adj. Spar shop
10.15 – 10.30 NEW ABERDOUR - car park
10.45 – 11.10 ROSEHEARTY – The Square
11.20 – 11.35 SANDHAVEN – St Magnus Rd beside park
11.50 – 12.00 TYRIE – Lay-by
13.30 – 13.40 MEMSIE – adj. BT exchange
13.50 – 14.00 RATHEN – adj. public hall
14.15 – 14.35 INVERALLOCHY – Frederick Street
14.45 – 15.05 ST COMBS – hall car park
15.15 – 15.25 LONMAY – adj. public hall
15.35 – 15.50 CRIMOND – Church car park
16.00 – 16.15 ST FERGUS – Kirktown
16.25 – 16.35 RORA – hall car park
16.55 – 17.15 BODDAM – Russell St.

No appointment is necessary, although constituents with ongoing cases should advise their attendance on 01779 470444.

North East Politicians in Plea After Damning Brexit Report

North East politicians have called on Tory MPs to ensure the region is protected after it was revealed Aberdeen’s economy could take the biggest hit from both a hard or soft Brexit.

New research has revealed leaving the European Union would impact Europe’s oil capital harder than any other city in the UK.

The findings, which were made by the thinktank Centre for Cities, were released today.

Earlier this year the chief executive of industry body Oil & Gas UK warned there would be £500million hit to the sector every year in trade agreements following the exit from the European Union.

Meanwhile, the head of the Centre for Cities Andrew Carter, said any form of Brexit is expected to be damaging but a hard Brexit would be twice as damaging to the region.

Aberdeenshire East MSP Gillian Martin said: “The findings from the Centre for Cities echo what we already know – that Brexit is going to be incredibly damaging to the North Sea oil and gas industry.

“The impact will have a trickledown effect into the supply chain and local economy which is already suffering from the oil and gas downturn.

“It is extremely worrying that the Tory MPs who represent the North East are in support of Brexit rather than protecting this vital sector and the region’s economic development.

“I would urge them all to think again before it is too late. Aberdeen has access to countries across the world due to the very EU treaties we will no longer have access too.

“Sectors including oil and gas, food and drink and the health and social care sector will all have considerably more difficulty in a post-Brexit economy.

“And the damaging effect of a hard Brexit on our universities and colleges will further impact on the local economy .”

Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson added: “The North-East is going to see the biggest reduction in our economic output as a result of our exit from the European Union.

“Any agreements must be as close to our current trade agreements as possible but it quite obvious the Tories have no desire to ensure that.”

Tories Signal Cuts to Agricultural Funding

Gove Threat to Farm Cash
Addressing the WWF tomorrow, UK Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Gove will deliver an unambiguous threat to farm cash, demonstrating once again that the UK Government cannot be trusted to look after our farmers beyond Brexit.

In his first speech in his new post, Mr Gove will say:

“…I want to ensure we go on generously supporting farmers for many more years to come. But that support can only be argued for against other competing public goods if the environmental benefits of that spending are clear.”

Amid fears that farming and fishing will be left without continued financial support beyond 2022 from the UK Government, SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson is renewing calls for powers over agriculture, fisheries and the rural economy to be repatriated to Scotland.

SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson, who is a member of Holyrood’s Rural Economy committee, said:

“This is an unambiguous Tory threat to continued agricultural support funding after 2022 – that is the stark post-Brexit reality which the UK Government is now proposing for our rural communities.

“Scottish farmers, like others across the UK, rely heavily on farming subsidies and their farm payments must be protected.

“Michael Gove’s empty rhetoric and false promises during the Brexit campaign have long since been exposed, and now he is backtracking on all the assurances he has ever made to Scotland.

“Powers over agriculture and fisheries must be repatriated to Scotland to enable a localised approach to these sectors and to put them and the wider natural environment at the heart of what we do. And it is vital that UK funding follows the powers to enable delivery.

“The Tory government has demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to champion Scottish farmers’ interests, and we cannot let them use Brexit as cover for a naked power grab that will leave Scotland’s farmers worse off.”

Repeal Bill: North East Tories Must Stand Up for Scottish Parliament

SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson is calling on MPs Duguid and Ross to oppose the UK Tory government’s attempts to use the EU Repeal Bill to strip Holyrood of powers.

The Scottish Tories need to distance themselves from the Bill which represents a naked power-grab, an attack on the founding principles of devolution, and which could destabilise our economy.

SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson said:

“Twenty years on since the referendum on devolution in Scotland, and the Tories are attempting an attack on the founding principles of devolution under the guise of the EU Repeal Bill.

“The SNP wants a smooth transition as much as the UK government, however this should be achieved through negotiation, not imposition. And it must be achieved in a way that respects Scotland’s hard-won devolved powers.

“I call on David Duguid and Douglas Ross to challenge any attempts at a naked power-grab on the devolved administrations by the Tories in Westminster during the withdrawal process from the EU, and to make clear their opposition to this Bill which sets out to undermine our national parliament.”

Senior Tory and NFUS Call for Brexit Rethink

Brexit Threat to Rural Scotland
Calling for a halt to Brexit in today’s Herald, former Tory MEP Struan Stevenson echoed NFU Scotland's warnings that Brexit and trading outside the EU risks collapsing land values, declining markets and a dependency on cheap, low quality imports.

Struan Stevenson said that as Scottish farmers face a future without EU subsidies - accounting for 60% of their income - Brexiteers want to throw open “UK markets to cheap food from Africa, Australia, North America, Brazil and Argentina, causing chaos for UK farm gate prices, a further fall in land values and widespread bankruptcies.”

Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, he warned of the dangers of trading with the US such as imported chlorinate washed chicken and hormone injected beef. He said:

“It seems ridiculous that a year after the referendum we still haven’t got our ducks in a row.”

Commenting, Stewart Stevenson SNP MSP and member of Holyrood’s Rural Economy committee said:

“More and more senior figures are condemning the UK government’s failing Brexit approach and their desperation to broker trade deals with new partners that will have devastating consequences for Scotland's fishing and farming industries - sectors which pride themselves on high quality produce.

“Quality Meat Scotland has already warned that Scottish farmers will be unable to compete with cheap imports from, for example, the US and countries in South America that can offer poorer quality, hormone-treated meat at lower prices than our high quality meat in Scotland. And NFU Scotland has today echoed those warnings and called once again for tariff free access to EU markets.

“But the Tories in power are still blind to the dangers, unable to think outside their narrow party interests and face up to the facts about a hard Brexit and what it will mean for our rural industries.

“The Tory Government’s Brexit plans continue to present a huge threat to jobs, investment and living standards in Scotland and Ruth Davidson and the Scottish Tories’ fulsome embrace of this prospect is truly shameless.”