James Reekie (Scottish Conservatives)
Who is he?
Conservative candidate for Dunfermline and West Fife.
James is 24 and single. He was born in and grew up in Dunfermline, attending Queen Anne High. James plays the bagpipes
Mr Reekie stood for the Dunfermline by-election in 2013, coming fourth.
Working life:
Attained a Law Degree from University of Edinburgh and a postgraduate degree in Business and Management at Strathclyde University.
He is Vice Chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party.
Scottish Conservative election pledges:
- "Zero tolerance for failure" at school by giving children "the best possible start" and reforming education
- Employ 1,000 extra nurses and midwives and make it easier to see a GP.
- No income tax to be paid by anyone earning less than £12,500 a year, and
10,000 new apprenticeships every 12 months. - Reintroduce the right to buy your council house and a "step-by-step" scheme
to help renters own their own home. - Free childcare for all two year olds from the most deprived households.
- Letting people or charities set up new schools that are not run by councils.
- Make anyone earning £50,000 pay a 40p rate of income tax.
- Increase the Basic State Pension by at least 2.5% every year.
About Dunfermline & West Fife
Dunfermline is officially the second largest settlement in Fife, though some estimates say the town could have more than 50,000 residents, which would make it larger than Kirkcaldy.
Locals consider it a city due to Dunfermline Abbey, which contains the body of King Robert The Bruce.
The only other towns in the constituency are Rosyth, which is heavily reliant on the ship-building industry, and Inverkeithing. The rest is made up of smaller villages such as Blairhall, Cairneyhill, Crossgates, Culross, Oakley, Saline and Valleyfield.
Coal mining used to be the principal employer in the constituency until the industry's collapse in the 1980's, many jobs in the area now come from call centres for major businesses like BSkyB, Lloyds and Nationwide, as well as the large Amazon fulfillment centre.
Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie is from the area, and donated Pittencrieff Park to the community in 1903. Mr Carnegie donated around 90% of his $350 million fortune to good causes, that's around £4.76 billion in today's money. Numerous parts of Dunfermline are named after him.
The town is home to Dunfermline Athletic Football Club, who play in the SPFL League One, after years in the top division.
Appin Crecent, which leads to Dunfermline centre, Edinburgh, and Stirling east bound, and the rest of Fife west bound, has some of the highest recorded levels of air pollution in Scotland.
Peacocks and peahens have had the freedom of Dunfermline since the 1900's, and Pittencrief Park, or The Glen, is now home to a peafowl sanctuary.
The constituency has been a traditional Labour seat, though the Liberal Democrat's Willie Rennie won a by-election for the seat in 2006 following the death of Rachael Squire. He later lost to incumbent Thomas Docherty. Mr Docherty is defending a majority of 5,470, the smallest margin of victory in Fife in 2010.
The SNP took Dunfermline in the 2010 Scottish Parliament election, but then lost the seat in a by-election to Labour's Cara Hilton in 2013 after MSP Bill Walker resigned following a 12-month conviction for a string of historic domestic assaults.
The main constituency issues - in his opinion:
Who else is standing here:
Douglas Chapman, SNP
Gillian Cole-Hamilton, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Lewis Campbell, Scottish Greens
Thomas Docherty, Scottish Labour
Why James Reekie thinks you should vote for him: