For
Immediate Release – 25 September 2007
Attn:
NEWS DESKS, POLITICAL
CORRESPONDENTS
The Scottish National Party in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Constituency has selected local man, Paul Wheelhouse, as Prospective
Parliamentary Candidate for the eagerly awaited and possibly
imminent General Election.
Paul is a 37-year old community councillor in Ayton,
Berwickshire. Paul works as a professional economist and policy
advisor on economics, education policy, and is an expert witness on
education infrastructure impacts of new housing developments. Paul
is married to Lorna, who he met while playing touch rugby, and has a
three-year-old son. Of his selection, Paul says:
"It is an absolute honour to have been selected by the
party to represent it to the people of this wonderful constituency
and I am very much looking forward to the campaign. It is my home
area and it means the World to my family and me. I will work hard to
represent our community."
With regard to the forthcoming election, Paul says: "Regardless
of recent polls, the next election will be a close run affair and
there is a distinct chance there could be a hung parliament. The
larger the SNP group that Scotland sends to Westminster, the greater
will be our leverage to extract the best deal for Scotland. History
tells us that whenever the SNP does well, the people of Scotland get
taken seriously. Our recent win in the Scottish elections has really
put Scotland to the fore, so I have no doubt that an SNP win in the
Borders would put our area back on the map."
"The Lib Dems and Tories are in cahoots at council level,
while working in Westminster and Holyrood to thwart the people of
Scotland's aspirations for self-government. This hardly surprising
given they are London run parties wishing to maintain the
Westminster status quo and its gravy-train. They also collude to
convince voters that each of them is the only one of them can win
the seat, with the perennial reference to a "two-horse
race".
" The SNP has moved on massively since 2005 as was shown
by the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections when we formed the new
Scottish Government. Christine Grahame narrowly lost out in the seat
covering Selkirkshire and Lauderdale, scoring 33% of the vote, while
in Roxburgh & Berwickshire we recorded 21% on the list vote,
only a couple of percent behind the Lib Dems."
"Our party now has 6 councillors on the Council, and we
missed out on a seventh in Hawick by just 6 votes. Five of our
councillors have their whole ward or part of their ward in the
constituency and we scored almost 20% of the vote in the council
election, again almost beating the Lib Dems."
"So to those who ask whether we can win, I say a
resounding 'yes!' With the support of my fellow citizens of the
Borders, whenever the time comes, we can come through the middle and
win in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk."
ENDS~~
Editor's Notes:
Paul grew up Edinburgh, attending Daniel Stewart's and Melville
College and he went on to study Economics at the University of
Aberdeen. He has since graduated with a Masters in Business
Administration (MBA) from University of Edinburgh Management
School.
Since 1992, Paul has worked as a professional economist with a
leading UK firm of economic consultants and has acted as a policy
advisor to a very wide range of public, private and voluntary sector
organisations across Scotland and the rest of the UK, including the
Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Funding
Council.
Paul's professional expertise is in areas such as demography,
demand for schools infrastructure, demand for further and higher
education, economic impact analysis, and in business planning for
major capital projects. Paul is proud to have been a key part of the
team to have obtained lottery funding for the Museum of Scotland and
for the proposed University of the Highlands and Islands.
Paul and Lorna moved to Cove in 2000, and were married at
Dryburgh Abbey in 2002. Since then, Paul and Lorna have had a young
son, who was born at the BGH. Paul has served as Secretary of
Cockburnspath (2001-2004) prior to moving to Ayton in 2005, where he
is currently Treasurer of Ayton Community Council. Paul has
previously served as Secretary on Berwickshire Community Council
Forum and Environment Group and represented Cockburnspath on the
East Berwickshire Communities Forum.
Aside from a passion for Scottish history and tracing his family
tree in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, Paul is a keen rugby
fan and recreational player of the touch rugby format and
five-a-side football.
The impending General Election will be Paul's first election
campaign as a candidate, however Paul is a highly experienced
campaigner and was a key member of Aileen Orr's campaign team in
2007. In 2007, the SNP outpolled every one of our rivals for the
aggregate list vote across both Borders seats, while support for
independence is now higher in the South of Scotland than almost all
other regions of Scotland. |
