“The reason I am standing, really, is Joe FitzPatrick has put in an Oscar-winning performance as the Invisible Man as a Dundee MSP,” says Ewan Gurr.
Mr Gurr claims he had no real intention of becoming a politician. The committed Christian has spent a decade or so helping set up foodbank services in Dundee and appeared on hit Channel Four programme The Secret Millionaire.
He has also been advising the Scottish Government on its new benefits service, Scottish Social Security Scotland.
But with the drugs death rate in Dundee the worst in Scotland, which is the country with the highest rate in Europe, Ewan said he felt “compelled” to join a new party to hold Dundee City West incumbent Joe FitzPatrick to account.
Mr FitzPatrick served as public health minister from June 2018 to December 2020, resigning from the post following the announcement of yet another increase in drugs deaths in Dundee and Scotland under his watch.
“The people of Dundee have experienced a traumatic year. Lives and livelihoods have been lost and our local representative, Joe FitzPatrick, has delivered an Oscar-winning performance as the Invisible Man,” he said.
“Seventy-two lives were lost in Dundee – and 1,264 across Scotland – in 2019 to a failed drugs policy he implemented.
“He also pioneered the Drug Deaths Task Force, which he populated with professionals – precisely the people who have failed to drive down drug deaths in Scotland.
“As someone who has experience of substance misuse, I believe we must include the voices of those who have entered, experienced and exited addiction in our policy-making process.
“Who can better identify the challenges but also provide solutions than those who have unravelled the coil of addiction?”
It’s not just class A substance abuse Ewan has experienced at a younger age.
BNP membership a ‘teenage mistake’
As a teenager, Ewan joined the fascist British National Party, emerging as a branch organiser for the Tayside group.
He left the organisation in 2005, aged 19, after reading an article about himself and the far-right group in a Scottish newspaper.
“There are aspects of my past about which I am not especially proud
and my teenage years would definitely fall into that category,” he adds.
“We all make poor judgments in our lives. The important thing is learning from our mistakes and making up for them.
“To that end, I have spent almost 20 years in the service of people experiencing poverty and would hope the people of Dundee will judge me primarily on that basis.”
‘Dundee needs to recover’
The Restore candidate has three objectives for running, he said.
“Firstly, we need to rebuild and, for that, we need out of lockdown. Dundee needs its voice amplified and championed and needs an advocate for true independence.
“Secondly, Dundee needs to recover and we must prioritise those who have entered, experienced and exited addiction in the creation of a credible drugs policy.
“Thirdly, I would reinvest 40% of an MSP’s salary – a minimum of £25,600 – back into grass-roots projects supporting people in the constituency and across Dundee.”
Church closures ‘unfair’
Ewan supports Scottish independence, as the majority of Dundee did in the 2014 referendum.
However, unlike the majority of Dundonians, Ewan wants to remain independent outside the EU.
Ewan claims the SNP could be causing a drop in support for independence among Dundee residents, with the “strict” lockdown measures in place over the last few months a factor in particular.
“It has been approximately 400 days since I last set foot in a church and it was almost 4,500 miles away in a small African village near Lugazi in south-east Uganda.
“It was colourful, fun, passionate and loud. To come back to Scotland, once known as “the Land of the Book”, and see church doors locked was in itself a travesty but for the Scottish Government to overstep its legislative rights is an aberration against liberty.
“The Scottish Government’s record on freedom, liberty and human rights throughout the pandemic has been embarrassing. I truly hope this decision acts as a reminder of the demarcation between the church and state.”
Ewan also regularly writes a column for the Dundee Evening Telegraph.
The other candidates for Dundee City West are Joe FitzPatrick (SNP), Tess White (Scottish Conservatives), Mercedes Villalba (Scottish Labour), Jim McFarlane (TUSC), Daniel Coleman (Lib Dems).