@Annemarieward, our CEO being told to watch her ‘tone’ while giving evidence to Scottish Parliament last May. Her response is EPIC! 🔥🔥
She explains how hard we fought for the Right To Recovery Treatment Scotland Bill, despite a stacked deck in committee in Scottish Parliament.
In total, at least 15–17 of the ~20 organisations who gave evidence at Right to Recovery Treatment oral sessions last year received substantial direct or indirect funding/support from the Scottish Government.
FavorUK was granted the very last slot on the very last day.
All the addiction sector quangos giving evidence receive substantial funding, yet even in giving their evidence - they took the opportunity to put the cap out for MORE funding. We need to start moving to a more balanced treatment treatment system. MUP has not stopped the alcohol deaths, £300 million in revenue raised and not one penny to treatment, drug deaths increased by 31% this quarter but the quangos want more £££. Something needs to change and soon.
#RightToRecovery #quangos #makingrightsreal #recovery #ScotlandDeservesBetter
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May 2025 and @Annemarieward, CEO of FavorUK explains how hard we fought for the Right To Recovery Treatment Scotland Bill, despite a stacked deck in committee in Scottish Parliament.
In total, at least 15–17 of the ~20 organisations who gave evidence at Right to Recovery Treatment oral sessions last year received substantial direct or indirect funding/support from the Scottish Government.
FavorUK was granted the very last slot on the very last day.
All the addiction sector quangos giving evidence receive substantial funding, yet even in giving their evidence - they took the opportunity to put the cap out for MORE funding. We need to start moving to a more balanced treatment treatment system. MUP has not stopped the alcohol deaths, £200 million in revenue raised and not one penny to treatment, drug deaths increased by 8% this year but the quangos want more £££. Something needs to change and soon.
@Annemarieward CEO FavorUK
#RightToRecovery #quangos #makingrightsreal #drugdeaths #alcoholdeaths #scotland
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11 Nov 2025
Drug deaths are STILL the highest in Europe. The SNP back the Thistle despite the chaos it’s brought to Calton, yet killed the Right to Recovery Bill at the first opportunity. They claim to be “evidence-based” while ignoring experts like Prof Matheson. Failed policies, failed leadership, and people are paying with their lives.
#RightToRecovery #DrugDeaths
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21 Oct 2025
Superb piece, @jamesbundy . 👏
You’ve named what so many of us have seen up close for years, the quiet capture of Scottish public life by a closed circle of government-funded insiders. It’s not conspiracy, it’s culture: a revolving door of “consultation” and “evidence” that always lands in the same hands.
Those of us who’ve tried to bring front-line recovery experience or independent data into the debate know exactly how that wall feels. It’s not that they argue it’s that they exclude.
Your call for transparency and diversity of evidence is spot-on. Until we face the dependency problem in the third sector, policymaking will stay trapped in a taxpayer-funded echo chamber.
Excellent analysis thank you for putting it so clearly. 👏
#RightToRecovery #Scotland #Policy #Accountability
21 Oct 2025
🚨 Who really shapes policy in Scotland?
My latest Substack examines how a narrow inner circle of influential organisations, often reliant on public funding, risks narrowing debate, stifling innovation, and undermining trust. Read more 👇
jamesbundy.substack.com/p/th…
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18 Oct 2025
From that moment, I began an education in how politics in Scotland really works not the glossy version of “consultation and collaboration,” but the tribal, risk-averse, self-protective version that eats reformers alive. I learned how committees can be stacked, how evidence can be “interpreted,” and how entire movements can be rebranded overnight if it suits the right narrative. #BattleFest & @AndrewGold_ok #OorBill
@Furedibyte
@gstringermp
@jtworr
#RightToRecovery
@acadofideas
Please read
open.substack.com/pub/annema…
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18 Oct 2025
“Who’s Afraid of the Populist Revolt?” they ask.
Maybe the same crowd that’s afraid to challenge the harm-reduction orthodoxy the one that keeps the poor managed instead of healed. Recovery is revolt. #BattleFest & @Fox_Claire, @Furedibyte & @gstringermp @jtworr #RightToRecovery @acadofideas
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14 Oct 2025
You’ve had 18 years and done none of these things.
But in the last few weeks, the SNP has voted against deliverable targets to end rough sleeping in Scotland and blocked giving those suffering from addiction the #righttorecovery.
Your rhetoric is betrayed by your record.
13 Oct 2025
We can build a society free from poverty.
We can use our energy wealth to lower bills.
And we can transform lives across Scotland.
It’s time for independence. 🏴
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11 Oct 2025
That’s not true, Raibeart. The Bill wouldn’t have slowed treatment, it would have made treatment possible for the thousands currently turned away or trapped in endless waiting lists. What slows things down isn’t law, it’s bureaucracy. Right now, people spend years begging for detox or rehab because no one is legally obliged to help them. The Bill would have changed that by making access enforceable, not optional. It’s not about red tape, it’s about responsibility. When lives are at stake, the only thing worse than “legalistic process” is no process at all, and worse still those in charge of the process marking their own jotters. #RightToRecovery #ScotlandDeservesBetter
11 Oct 2025
The Bill would have put legalistic processes before patients and just slowed treatment down.
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11 Oct 2025
That’s not true, Raibeart. The Bill wouldn’t have slowed treatment, it would have made treatment possible for the thousands currently turned away or trapped in endless waiting lists.
What slows things down isn’t law, it’s bureaucracy. Right now, people spend years begging for detox or rehab because no one is legally obliged to help them. The Bill would have changed that by making access enforceable, not optional.
It’s not about red tape, it’s about responsibility. When lives are at stake, the only thing worse than “legalistic process” is no process at all, and worse still those in charge of the process marking their own jotters.
#RightToRecovery #ScotlandDeservesBette
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11 Oct 2025
This passage from @jamesbundy stopped me cold:
“In Scotland, ministers don’t decide, they hide. Instead of taking responsibility, they launch consultations, form working groups, or defer endlessly to ‘experts’. Problems aren’t solved, they’re managed.”
That’s it, right there. That’s the sickness at the heart of Scottish public life, process without purpose, caution without courage.
We don’t need another consultation. We need conviction. We need people with big shoulders and bigger hearts, people willing to make hard calls, take responsibility, and lead from the front when lives are at stake.
Leadership isn’t a title, it’s a burden you choose to carry. And right now, too many in power are ducking it.
Scotland deserves decision-makers, not meeting-makers. Accountability isn’t cruelty, it’s care in action.
It’s time for courage again.
#Leadership #Accountability #RightToRecovery #ScotlandDeservesBetter
11 Oct 2025
I wrote this piece as a reflection on my campaign to improve stroke care in Scotland. I feel many of the frustrations you’re feeling - open.substack.com/pub/jamesb…
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11 Oct 2025
So John Swinney suddenly realised he would have to actually be responsible for all the new SNP voters he was importing. Shame he hasn't realised he's responsible for the people of Scotland yet! #SNPout #SNP25 #righttorecovery
news.sky.com/story/scottish-…
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10 Oct 2025
Scotland’s @ScotGovFM , @JohnSwinney , has let the homeless down. Across Scotland, people are struggling hungry, cold, and forgotten.
Tomorrow the SNP gather for their annual conference, but the people left behind won’t be in the room.
John Swinney, come and visit the people who need to see you. Come to the streets of Glasgow, and beyond listen to the voices of those living this every day.
It’s time for action, not excuses.
Scotland deserves better.
@hp_scotland
#HomelessProjectScotland #JohnSwinney #SNPConference #PovertyWeek #RightToShelter #RightToRecovery #NoMoreHomelessness #ScotlandDeservesBetter
10 Oct 2025
This is what some people in Aberdeen had to say about the Scottish First Minister, John Swinney.
Tomorrow is the Scottish National Party's annual conference, but Swinney remains unbothered by his likeability - telling our reporter @ajjenkins his focus is on the work to be done.
@hp_scotland
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10 Oct 2025
This was a passionate plea from @Douglas4Moray to SNP and Green MSPs to not vote down the #righttorecovery bill at Stage 1. To allow it to continue to be improved. To reject their party whips and do the right thing for vulnerable people.
They blocked it anyway.
Please watch.
10 Oct 2025
In the debate on the Right to Recovery Bill we only needed a handful of SNP or Green MSPs to do the right thing and support the Bill.
Sadly, not a single one did.
They all loyally did as instructed by @JohnSwinney and Health Secretary Neil Gray.
Shameful.
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10 Oct 2025
#WorldMentalHealthDay is a reminder that mental health and addiction recovery go hand in hand.
When people ask for help, it shouldn’t depend on funding, politics, or postcode.
Scotland deserves better, and I won’t stop speaking up until it gets it. 💚 #RightToRecovery
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9 Oct 2025
So much love and admiration for @Annemarieward who has never stopped fighting for the #righttorecovery
Drugs deaths are Scotland's shame. We deserve better.
9 Oct 2025
PRESS STATEMENT – ANNEMARIE WARD, CEO, FACES & VOICES OF RECOVERY UK
Right to Recovery Bill Rejected: Parliament Chooses Institutions Over People
Today, Parliament had a chance to make history, and instead it chose to repeat it.
By rejecting the Right to Recovery Bill, MSPs have turned their backs on 80% of public respondents who supported it, and on the thousands of families still burying their children while bureaucrats debate definitions.
This vote protects a failed system,one that keeps people on medication for decades but can’t find a bed for those ready to get well.
It’s a vote for the government funded quangos, not the communities.
The Charter of Rights ministers prefer is a poster, not a law. It gives permission, not power. And no family can hang their hopes on that.
History will record that on this day, when Parliament could have chosen recovery, it chose rhetoric instead.
But the movement doesn’t stop here. Rights delayed are not rights denied we will keep fighting until every person who asks for help can get it.
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9 Oct 2025
👇👇👇😡 @Annemarieward @FAVORUK @Douglas4Moray @AnnieWellsMSP #righttorecovery #DrugDeaths #Rehab #EuropesDrugCapital #SNPout #ScottishGreensout
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9 Oct 2025
To every family who has lost someone, and to everyone still fighting for a chance at recovery, I am so deeply sorry. You deserve better.
This isn’t the end of the conversation. I will never stop speaking up for those whose voices are too often ignored.
Scotland deserves a system where recovery is a right, not a privilege.
Thankyou again to @Douglas4Moray @Annemarieward @FAVORUK @BrianWhittle @SueJWebber @SteviesTweetz and so many others for your hard work on this bill.
#RightToRecovery #ScottishParliament #RecoveryIsARight #AddictionSupport #AnnieWellsMSP
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9 Oct 2025
Scotland is Europe's drug death capital but SNP and Green MSPs shamefully put politics before saving lives to vote against our Right to Recovery Bill.
The SNP government has been captured by dangerous lobbyists 👇
#RightToRecovery
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