Hopeful pointers for the Holyrood election from Dundee Pensioners’ Forum

Our members have been bravely prominent - amongst others - in opposing some very nasty street protests against asylum seekers housed in Dundee. 

Led by so-called Dundee Patriots, claiming to be protecting women and girls, these protestors have brought a new level of hostility and physical aggression to Dundee streets over the winter months.

The Pensioners Forum had also noticed a different tone in the conduct of debate in the Scottish Parliament, sadly echoing the infantile yahoo-boo behaviour long associated in the confrontational nature of debate at Westminster. 

Such was Scotland’s concern at this long-embedded behaviour and our hope that the Scottish democracy would be better, our Parliament building was constructed in such a way that the overall architectural design and layout of the Debating Chamber itself might eliminate such toxic debate at Holyrood, and instead encourage considered deliberation.

Therefore, when it came to preparing our manifesto for the election, we thought that we should focus on behaviour.  We want the persons we elect to behave in a way that promotes and pursues a fair, just and tolerant society.

In ‘Our Vision for Scotland’, we believe we also offer some pointers to an inclusive and tolerant democracy.  Some examples:

On employment, we argue for good jobs, with decent wages and conditions; jobs that give dignity, respect, satisfaction, a sense of self-worth and protections against exploitation.  On taxation, in a land where billionaires abound and foodbanks are burgeoning, we should ponder the words of the post-war Prime Minister Clement Attlee, “ Charity is a cold, grey, loveless thing.  If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim.”

On social exclusion, we urge that the relentless drive to make goods and services, including crucial access to health care, gas and electricity and banking must not leave behind those whose access to the internet is limited or non-existent. 

On climate change, we urge the Parliament to listen to the cry of youth and the voice of the experience of age.

The overall theme of our manifesto is that in this small nation it should be possible to have a coherent and cohesive society, one that is not bedevilled by the destructiveness of division, but where we can build a cooperative and collective culture that values every citizen, old and young, weak and strong, hopeful or fearful, loved or lonely, and that embraces the words of our national poet, that “we are all Jock Tamson’s bairns.”

Erik Cramb, member of Dundee Pensioners' Forum, writing here in a personal capacity Published 24 April 2026