Tory candidate: 'I'm not worried at all about Reform'
With just a week to go, candidates from SNP, Scottish Labour, Tories, and Reform are battling it out for votes.
The SNP and Reform have called the by-election a 'straight contest' between them, but the Conservative's Richard Nelson said he's 'not worried at all'.
'I'm here to run my own campaign,' Nelson said.
'The people at the doors are not commenting on Reform, they're commenting on the work I've done in this local community and that's what I'll continue to do.'
Nelson also confirmed he was a member of the Orange Order and the Apprentice Boys of Derry and defended his membership of both groups.
'I represent everyone despite religion or race and I'll continue to do so. The organisations I'm in are not illegal organisations – they're Christian fraternal organisations and I'm a part of them, but I represent everyone and their communities and I'll continue to do so,' he told STV News.
Nelson also said reforming the NHS was among his top priorities.
'People are telling me they can't get an appointment with their GP, they can't get an appointment at the hospital, they're waiting months for surgery – and I just think that's unacceptable,' Nelson said.
'As an NHS employee, I see first hand the way the NHS has been broken by the current SNP Scottish Government.'
'It's not about throwing continuous money at the NHS because it just disappears – it doesn't go anywhere and you don't see the benefit of it. For me it's about frontline staff, they're the people that actually need it and that's what we need to see a focus on, not the hierarchy of the NHS.'
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Gonorrhoea at all-time high as NHS rolls out 'world first' treatment
Cases of gonorrhoea are at the highest levels since records began 🚨 Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Sexual health clinics will now be able to offer a free vaccine to patients at highest risk of gonorrhoea. The 4CMenB vaccine will help protect those most at risk of gonorrhoea — potentially avoiding up to 100,000 infections. Diagnoses of gonorrhoea have reached their highest levels since records began. A new vaccine will be offered to those at most risk of gonorrhoea, in a world first from the NHS. Cases of gonorrhoea are at the highest levels since records began, with 85,000 cases of the disease reported in England in 2023, three times higher than that of 2012. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This vaccine will protect thousands of people and help combat increasing levels of antibiotic-resistant strains of the disease. The 4CMenB vaccine, which will be available from August 4, will help protect those most at risk of gonorrhoea. Potentially avoiding up to 100,000 cases of the infection, while easing pressure on vital NHS services. Sexual health clinics will now be able to offer a free vaccine to patients at the highest risk of Gonorrhoea. | Pexels, Chokniti Khongchum Consultant Epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency, Dr Sema Mandal, said: 'This rollout is hugely welcome as we're currently seeing very concerning numbers of gonorrhoea, including even more worryingly antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea. The vaccine will give much-needed protection to those that need it most - making the UK a world leader in the fight against gonorrhoea. 'Sexually transmitted infections aren't just an inconvenience – they can have a major impact on your health and your sexual partners, so if offered, I strongly urge you to get these jabs; you'll be protecting yourself as well as others. Don't put it off and regret it later.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad What are the symptoms of gonorrhoea? Not everyone will experience symptoms of gonorrhoea. If you do have symptoms, they will usually start around two weeks after being exposed, although they sometimes do not appear until months later. Symptoms of gonorrhoea, according to the NHS, can vary depending on where you have the infection. Symptoms of gonorrhoea in a woman can include: a yellow or greenish discharge from your vagina burning pain when you pee pain in your lower abdomen bleeding between your periods (this is rare) Symptoms of gonorrhoea in a man can include: burning pain when you pee fluid or discharge coming out of your penis sore testicles Gonorrhoea can affect other parts of your body that come into contact with semen or vaginal fluid. This can cause: Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad pain, itching and discharge from your anus (bottom) a sore throat eye redness, pain and discharge What is 'super gonorrhoea'? 'Super gonorrhoea' refers to gonorrhoea strains that are resistant to antibiotics, making them harder to treat. Whilst still rare, concern has been growing about their prevalence. Between June 2022 and May 2024, 15 drug-resistant cases were detected in England, including five that were found to be extensively drug-resistant. You can find out more about the signs and symptoms of gonorrhoea and whether or not you are eligible for the vaccine at
Scotsman
2 hours ago
- Scotsman
How Scotland regularly fills a 'mass grave' of drug victims who might have lived
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... There are roughly 91 days in every statistical quarter of the year. In the quarter from March 1 to May 31, 2025, there were 312 suspected drug-related deaths. That's more than three a day, every day. Over the 13 weeks, it is 24 every week. It is an increase of 15 per cent over the last 13-week quarter. It is similar (4 per cent lower) than the same period in 2023 but 7 per cent higher than that period in 2024. Whatever year you want to take, it is a harrowing number, especially when you give it some perspective. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Just imagine, every week, for 13 weeks in a row there was a train crash between Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street, or Haymarket and Dundee, or anywhere in Scotland for that matter – and the result was 24 deaths. Every week. For 13 weeks. And it is getting worse. What do you think the public response would be? Would we not be demanding that the Scottish Government do something to prevent the mounting loss of life? Would any politician be able to look in the mirror and say 'I am doing my best to prevent this daily and weekly roll-call of death' if the numbers just kept being added too? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A heroin addict lies sprawled on a mattress (Picture: Chris Young) | Universal Images Group via Getty SNP's perverse policies It's all very well saying that people should not get on the train that might take them to an early death, but few if any of those who make that journey expect early death to be the outcome for them. More often than not, people starting out on this journey think it's always going to happens to someone else. By the time they realise they are watching in slow motion their own but sadly inevitable demise, they are often beyond having the capacity to get off that train. They need help. They need to be helped out of their addiction and they need rehabilitation so they don't think one day they can easily have a day trip without any consequences. Currently, instead of trying to improve our drug rehabilitation, the policy of the Scottish Government is quite the reverse; indeed it's perverse. The Scottish Government is trying to make it easier for those addicted to take their daily journey just that little bit smoother, a little less of a trouble. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There's a pilot in Glasgow for a 'drug consumption room', where addicts are given a safe place to take their drugs – the provision of such a service consumes scarce resources that could instead be used to provide rehabilitation that can help people making that daily commute to catastrophe. It's like taking away the ticket inspectors, removing the barriers and saying here, try first class instead, it's a more comfortable journey. When the train crashes, it doesn't matter which carriage you are in. You are a fatality, another addition to the statistics – even if the journey was that little bit easier because you could inject the drug of your choice or the addictive substitute of the authorities' choice, you still end up at the destination of death. Bully-state interventions Many of the people advocating an easier journey – essentially in the so-called public health specialism – are also quite sanguine if not openly supportive of making access to drugs easier too. Various narcotics would be declassified and in other ways made easier to come by. Likewise, by making the base cost of alcohol higher through minimum pricing legislation, there is evidence on the street that various drugs are now intentionally made available by suppliers at a cost lower than alcohol so new entrants to drugs become addicted and board that train. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad What is the public health response to an alcohol policy that has failed while persecuting responsible drinkers and lining the pockets of the supermarkets? Why, it is to go into denial – for they themselves are addicted to bully-state interventions of directing the behaviour of the law-abiding majority – and increase the minimum price further. Annemarie Ward, chief executive of the charity Favour UK, which seeks to improve the provision of drug rehabilitation services across the country, has found the Scottish Government to be profoundly difficult to work with, often talking of providing better services only to reduce the number of rehab beds available. Ward notes that the number of suspected drug deaths in the last three quarters is: Q4 2024: 215 deaths; Q1 2025: 272 deaths (+26 per cent); and Q2 2025: 312 deaths (+15 per cent). That's a 45 per cent surge in six months. 'The flames are rising, the bodies are stacking up, and the state has the audacity to rebrand failure as calm,' says Ward. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The campaigner regularly takes the Scottish authorities to task for saying the situation is 'stable' – responding that it is 'an obscenity, like calling a mass grave this year as similar to one last year'. Over 1,200 people needlessly dying last year was a mass grave of great shame to Scotland and will become another such mass grave of shame if, as seems likely, it is repeated this year too. 18 years of failure Scotland having the highest drug-related deaths in Europe is a failing of devolution because, despite having the same laws regarding drug enforcement, the Holyrood parliament has the powers to deal with Scotland's own problems. It is also a failure for the prevailing 'whae's like us' culture in Holyrood, where trying to do things differently from England is given preference – even when their policies work – and comes at the price of needless deaths. Most obviously though, it is a failure of the SNP government, now in power for some 18 years and clearly in control of rehabilitation services that it has failed to develop – while focussing on its own addiction towards holding referendums. What an utterly awful trip Scotland is on, and until the SNP is removed that train will crash every week.
Scotsman
2 hours ago
- Scotsman
Gonorrhoea at all-time high as NHS rolls out 'world first' treatment
Cases of gonorrhoea are at the highest levels since records began 🚨 Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Sexual health clinics will now be able to offer a free vaccine to patients at highest risk of gonorrhoea. The 4CMenB vaccine will help protect those most at risk of gonorrhoea — potentially avoiding up to 100,000 infections. Diagnoses of gonorrhoea have reached their highest levels since records began. A new vaccine will be offered to those at most risk of gonorrhoea, in a world first from the NHS. Cases of gonorrhoea are at the highest levels since records began, with 85,000 cases of the disease reported in England in 2023, three times higher than that of 2012. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This vaccine will protect thousands of people and help combat increasing levels of antibiotic-resistant strains of the disease. The 4CMenB vaccine, which will be available from August 4, will help protect those most at risk of gonorrhoea. Potentially avoiding up to 100,000 cases of the infection, while easing pressure on vital NHS services. Sexual health clinics will now be able to offer a free vaccine to patients at the highest risk of Gonorrhoea. | Pexels, Chokniti Khongchum Consultant Epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency, Dr Sema Mandal, said: 'This rollout is hugely welcome as we're currently seeing very concerning numbers of gonorrhoea, including even more worryingly antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea. The vaccine will give much-needed protection to those that need it most - making the UK a world leader in the fight against gonorrhoea. 'Sexually transmitted infections aren't just an inconvenience – they can have a major impact on your health and your sexual partners, so if offered, I strongly urge you to get these jabs; you'll be protecting yourself as well as others. Don't put it off and regret it later.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad What are the symptoms of gonorrhoea? Not everyone will experience symptoms of gonorrhoea. If you do have symptoms, they will usually start around two weeks after being exposed, although they sometimes do not appear until months later. Symptoms of gonorrhoea, according to the NHS, can vary depending on where you have the infection. Symptoms of gonorrhoea in a woman can include: a yellow or greenish discharge from your vagina burning pain when you pee pain in your lower abdomen bleeding between your periods (this is rare) Symptoms of gonorrhoea in a man can include: burning pain when you pee fluid or discharge coming out of your penis sore testicles Gonorrhoea can affect other parts of your body that come into contact with semen or vaginal fluid. This can cause: Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad pain, itching and discharge from your anus (bottom) a sore throat eye redness, pain and discharge What is 'super gonorrhoea'? 'Super gonorrhoea' refers to gonorrhoea strains that are resistant to antibiotics, making them harder to treat. Whilst still rare, concern has been growing about their prevalence. Between June 2022 and May 2024, 15 drug-resistant cases were detected in England, including five that were found to be extensively drug-resistant.
