John Bradley is the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Central.
David Cameron remarked after his first walkabout in Glasgow as Tory leader how delighted he was not to be headbutted. This was not a slight on the good people of Scotland’s biggest city – this was a self-deprecating nod to the fact that the Conservatives have, for many years, not been very popular in Glasgow.
I was not so lucky as the party leader. The first time I went leafleting in Glasgow, I made a schoolboy error. I started at the bottom of a block of flats, and worked my way up. This meant that by the time I came down again, the residents at the bottom of the building knew there was a Tory in there. Unfortunately one resident threw a leaflet back at me wrapped around dog excrement – so I suppose it was natural that when I embarked on social action projects in the city it began with environmental clean-ups. After all – the less mess in the street, the fewer potential missiles to be aimed at me!
And what a transformation occurs in a community’s perception of politicians when they engage in local projects. Oliver Letwin said recently that it’s a delusion to imagine most people are concerned with detailed policy. Perhaps he has a point. In Glasgow people are most concerned about things that affect their daily lives – like the litter in their streets and graffiti on their garden walls. Social action in a community like that is a no-brainer. You have to get involved. And it is incredibly satisfying. Bringing in local communities, and seeing their delight at what all of us have achieved at the end of a day’s work is simply magnificent.
When we had a clean-up in the Strathbungo area of the city, students from Conservative Future came from all over Scotland and were joined by local residents who were aghast that these young people would give up their Saturday to do this work. One elderly local man said ‘Who are all these people?' I told him it was local residents and a group of young Conservatives. “TORIES! Helping people? You should have given me a chair to sit on before you told me that". The students went home beaming with pride – they hadn’t expected to enjoy it, and had returned home wanting more.
Devolution is now ten years old, and by working within the devolution settlement, the Conservatives are making sure that there is a strong voice for the Union. The Scottish leader, Annabel Goldie, recognises that to increase our standing in Scotland, we must engage with Social Action projects like these. She has joined me on a project in Glasgow herself, and had the following to say:
“Social Action Projects are a marvellous opportunity for people from all walks of life to mix, form friendships and do invaluable work within our local communities. We all enjoy attractive clean local areas which we can take pride in and it is vital that people realise that we all have a responsibility not only to each other but to the environment in which we live.”
Social action in the Scottish Party is still lagging behind successes in England, but I feel confident that with Annabel’s support, we can build on the promising start that we’ve had, especially on our forthcoming National Social Action day on October 10th.
Meanwhile, my constituency has the lowest life expectancy not only in the UK, but in Europe. In Calton, just east of the City Centre, life expectancy is just 53.9 years. In the Gaza strip it’s 70. Politicians have failed this area for decades, and only by engaging at a grassroots level can we start to repair the damage.
Our next environmental project will be in Toryglen, a sorely neglected area, which needs more involvement and attention; and another project will be engaging mothers in Bridgeton in the fight against anti-social behaviour through a scheme called Make Mothers Matter. By helping to identify community leaders and give support to existing (and very hardworking) grassroots networks, politicians can start to effect positive change whilst avoiding top-down government intervention.
We have had a Conservative Prime Minister who sat as MP for the constituency in which I am standing – Andrew Bonar Law. If he were alive today, I’m sure he would see the new politics that is necessary, and be out with us picking litter at the weekends. I hope you will too.