Thread by @DeanMThomson

Part two of my push to call out blatant lies & deliberately misleading campaign material. Sadly we're going to have to talk about @CStevensonSNP again.

In this case it's to call out the misleading (and, in my opinion, quite shameless) [1/15]

Here is a tweet from Collette Stevenson, Candidate for East Kilbride. Number 44 in her boast of 50 SNP achievements is 'Care For All'

'Free personal and nursing care extended to everyone who needs it, regardless of age'.

Sounds great, but she's leaving some things out[2/15]

First of all, the real thanks for free personal care in Scotland to under-65s should go to Amanda Kopel. She tirelessly led a campaign which began with a petition to MSPs at Holyrood back in 2013.[3/15]

Her husband was Frank Kopel, the former Dundee United footballer. He had been diagnosed with dementia at 59. Too young to qualify for free care, Mrs Kopel set out to ensure anyone living with disabilities and degenerative conditions could access support, regardless of age.[4/15]

She continued the campaign after her husband sadly passed away. So, personally, I think this brave and selfless lady deserves quite a bit more credit. More than some unknown (jobbing) SNP candidate, erasing the role Ms Kopel played, so as to take full credit for the SNP.[5/15]

And did you know that in October 2015, then SNP Health Secretary Shona Robison appeared before the petitions committee? She refused to back Mrs Kopel's petition. I notice Collette Stevenson forgets all of this context in her 44th out of 50 boasts.[6/15]

Also worth noting is the brilliant efforts of Labour MSP Johann Lamont, she was elected as convener of the petitions committee in June 2016. She would later lodge a motion in parliament highlighting calls for social care charging to end.[7/15]

This was debated in December 2016, with Labour, Conservative and Green MSPs backing the Frank's Law campaign. The SNP, having rejected the petition were long-grassing the whole issue with a 'feasibility study' on expanding free personal care.[8/15]

While the SNP fiddled with its 'feasibility study', Tory MSP Miles Briggs launched a member's bill.

The proposed Free Personal Care (Persons under 65) (Scotland) Bill opened for consultation at the end of June 2017. [9/15]

At the time Briggs won the backing of all opposition parties, & his bill would likely have passed without the SNP. Only now, facing being utterly shamed, did the SNP FINALLY bother to take legislate action, to expand free personal care.[10/15]

So while Collette Stevenson campaign tweet is technically correct, it is deeply misleading. Fact is the SNP & Nicola Sturgeon had to be embarrassed into passing their own version of 'Frank's Law'.[11/15]

Mrs Kopel (the real hero in this story) said: "Yes there were some really rough days - days when I felt like just giving up and thinking I can't go on with this anymore because I kept getting knocked down. But so many people have been beside me."[12/15]

So for the legislation that extended free personal care in Scotland to under-65s; I'm going to thank Mrs Kopel. She's the real hero here. She lobbied all the political parties, she even spoke to Tory conference & pushed her petition in parliament.[13/15]

Mrs Kopel efforts have made thousands of peoples lives better. And an SNP government that had to be embarrassed into passing her law, for fear of opposition parties doing it without them, should show more damn humility in what they claim full credit for in this election.[14/15]

My source for the thread: 'Frank's Law: From petition to policy' bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla… [15/15]

This isn't the first dodgy campaign tweet put out by Collette Stevenson. You can find her outright lying here👇

https://twitter.com/DeanMThomson/status/1374724459563716608?s=20