RICHARD BROOKS
ABERDEEN CITY COUNCILLOR - VOICE FOR THE NORTH EAST
A Stronger North East is a Stronger Britain!
Richard Brooks went to school in Arbroath, studied in Aberdeen University and has spent the last 25 years working in the North East, mainly in Aberdeen. He is passionate about giving people a hand-up rather than just a hand-out. Long before he was involved in politics, he was helping people face to face, founding the anti-poverty and social action charity TLC: Scotland's first foodbank organisation in 2002.
Since then he has been involved in the evolution of school breakfast clubs, youth outreach and Lifelong learning in Aberdeen and across the North of Scotland. He is now initiating the duplication of his social action response in other nations. You can read more about his actions HERE
Most importantly for many who know Richard, he believes that a stronger North East is a Stronger Britain. The North East has beauty and brilliance around almost every corner. At the foot of some of the most breath-taking scenery in the UK is Aberdeen, the Oil and Gas capital of Europe, with university researchers and industry innovators leading us through the Energy Transition to Net Zero; Dotted around the scenery are distilleries making the finest whisky in the world; thriving farming and fishing industries. We have some of the best innovative minds and business leaders in the world; tourist attractions from Castles to Abbeys and some of the most coveted golf courses in the world
But...
In Aberdeen we have a SNP-led Coalition leading the Aberdeen administration....and from Bus Gates to LEZ, to over-promising and under delivering on Football stadia, Swimming pools, Library services, delayed Beach Master plan, City Centre decisions that is killing business, a transport system that is pushing visitors away and the list is endless, they are failing Aberdeen, the jewel of the North East, and failing the North East itself.
Just look at the chaos in other SNP-led areas: Angus and Dundee... do they have a clue??
For some reason, the SNP nationally have never fully recognised the North East, its achievements or its potential. Maybe it’s because we are very much a part of the United Kingdom providing half the homes in Britain with energy; Maybe it’s because we benefit from unfettered access to British markets through produce such as strawberries, raspberries, beef, lamb, fish, and whisky; or maybe it is because of our beauty, wealth of wildlife and holiday retreats....who really knows!
What we do know is that Richard Brooks is turning up the heat on the SNP, and turning up the volume for local people with local issues across the North East. He is fighting hard, holding the SNP to account both locally and nationally on some very poor decision that are grinding our city, our region and our Nation into the ground.
www.StrongerNE.uk
Richard Brooks adding volume to local voices across the North East
A large ill-conceived plan to erect 1500 pylons from the north to the south of Scotland is underway despite the impact to our countryside, our health and our environmental impact. WE will not remain silent and will expose the green-washing claims that this will mitigate climate change and aid our efforts to reach Net Zero. Richard will be supporting Deeside Against Pylons, Save our Mearns and Leylodge Against Industrialisation. Despite the rhetoric, it is possible to run the cables submerged or buried. Having worked in Oil and Gas as a chartered engineer and chartered marine engineer, for over 20 years, Richard knows fine well that it is feasible and achievable.
The war in the Ukraine has seen the UK hit by extreme fuel prices and cost-of-living challenges being felt by every community in the Northeast. Now more than ever we need to pull together, watch out for one another, make sure we have a community to resist the plight of social isolation, deprivation and vulnerability. We do not need our money spent on independence, when its needed in so many other areas.
Under the current SNP government Scotland has:
- the worst child poverty in Europe for almost all of the last decade
- teachers under-paid and under-resourced, leaving the profession
- Scottish education ranked bottom with the attainment gap widening, despite it being the Scottish governments top priority
- the Scottish NHS at breaking point
- the most under-resourced, underfunded Police force in the UK
- the worst drug-related death statistics in Europe, and
- an astronomical rise in foodbank usage, despite empty promises to address this for the last 17 years;
Even under a Labour government and their penny pinching from pensioners, the Scottish picture is not the fault of Westminster; this is an SNP failing! And the SNP government blindly spend 'our' millions on failed (and never ending) ferry projects, misleading the people on independence, wasting more of our money on Lorna Slater’s ill-thought out deposit-return scheme and the ill-fated Gender Recognition Bill; whilst sending our once world-class education down the drain, not to mention set plans that will negatively affect our fishing industry, our clean power industry, and decimating our increasingly necessary oil and gas sector.
This country is on its knees under the SNP. It’s time to work with Richard to put this Nation back on its feet, putting your priorities first.
Whilst knowing the root of the chaos, Richard has worked with the three main parties in Scotland (SNP, Scottish Conservatives and Labour) and is committed to working with any and all political parties to get Scotland thriving again; and whilst he is the founder of what is believed to be the first exclusive foodbank in Scotland over 20 years ago, he continues to be committed to ridding Scotland of their need.
