Over 50 young @theSNP members have opposed plans for a National Service style scheme to create an unpaid, volunteer workforce to staff public services, like our NHS, during a time of crisis. Workers need pay and we all need funded public services. https://www.thenational.scot/news/18438136.full-young-snp-activists-letter-stewart-mcdonald/

Proposals to create an unpaid volunteer workforce undermine our NHS and its skilled workers, and exploit young people. The solution to combat any crisis is to have a trained, paid workforce and well-funded public services. Our opposition to austerity must be relentless.

Young people, like all workers, need meaningful jobs, dignity in work, and to be properly paid with a Real Living Wage. Not UCAS points or tax incentives. Investment in job creation is the key to providing young workers and our public services with the requirements to thrive.

RUSI has developed this policy. They are funded by the global defence industry and tobacco companies. This is an encroachment of defence and corporate interest on our public services and workers' rights, and a slide towards the militarisation and privatisation of public services.

Thank you to everyone who signed their name and held the line standing up for something they believed in. If we continue to use our collective voice, we will be able to build a Scotland with funded public services, opportunities and workers' rights.