Jamie Stone General Election 2024 Interview 1

Transcript

00:00Jamie Stone, thanks for your time today. We're here in part of what was Charles

00:05Kennedy's former seat. He was obviously a well-known, well-kept face around these

00:10parts. How important is it for you personally and the Liberal Democrats in

00:14particular to retain this part of the seat and potentially win the win to the

00:18south? It's hugely important because on a personal level I was Charles's

00:24constituency chairman. I was hugely fond of Charles. I think he was one of the nicest

00:28people in politics I've ever come across and I mourn what happened to him. He was

00:33hounded out of the seat and then he died. So it's almost like a mission for me to

00:40try and regain this for Charles's old party and it's funny, it's a poetic

00:47balance thing, but his son Donald did an internship with me in Westminster and

00:52almost for Donald's sake and his mum's sake, I really want to win the

00:57seat back, this part of the seat back. Part of the arguments that you've been putting

01:01forward so far have related to social care. You yourself of course are a carer

01:07and of course you've got your wife's permission to discuss that. Can you tell

01:10us a little bit more about how the personal relates to the political?

01:15Yeah, 25 years ago my wife was going to Inverness on the bus to shop and

01:24essentially she collapsed at the bus stop and was whicked straight into

01:30Rigmor and they found she'd got a seriously big brain tumour which we didn't know

01:34anything about and she then had major surgery, very very nearly lost her life, thank God

01:39she didn't and ever since then she's been quite severely disabled and it is

01:44my job and I love my wife dearly so I'm her carer and therefore I

01:50understand caring, you know, because I've got the t-shirt and just I want to

01:55contribute to the wonderful team of people who come in on the weekdays to

01:58help but I also am aware of the difficulty that the carers face. For

02:04instance, if they do more than a certain mileage the Indian Revenue clobbers them

02:08for tax. That's all wrong because in the Highlands, you know, you have to drive

02:12vast distances, particularly extreme over in Wester Ross and West Sutherland where

02:17carers are actually beginning to give up doing it. If we don't have carers then

02:21what are we going to do? So that's why I'm so driven on this issue and it is

02:27really wrong that this has not been addressed, this issue, and it's doubly

02:31worse because we actually have an ageing population as we know and so we need

02:35carers more than ever. I guess it's one of my big big missions to put this one

02:41right.