Tories: restore a legacy or build anew?

Published on Wednesday 12 October 2011 00:06

I’ve been a Scottish Conservative candidate three times, am a former member of the party’s Scottish national executive, was a parliamentary adviser to a number of Conservative MSPs between 2003 and 2007, and have experience of campaigning across Scotland.

Since 2003, I’ve seen a steady decline in support for the party. We’ve been left with what is effectively the rump of our vote, with traditional Conservative voters supporting other parties or simply staying at home on polling day. We’re by far Scotland’s largest centre-right party but we consistently fail to attract Scotland’s large centre-right vote.

We need a leader with experience and with ideas on how to improve our fortunes; someone who is not scared to instigate root-and-branch reform of the party and for whom there are no sacred cows.

Murdo Fraser is the only candidate to come forward with serious suggestions on how to take the party forward. That’s been proved to me by the fact that the other candidates have spent most of their time attacking his ideas and not coming up with their own.

He’s the only heavyweight candidate in this contest, has considerable front bench experience and has been involved in the party at all levels for a long time. I’m confident Murdo knows the party inside out and, like me, knows what needs to change.

Jamie Halcro Johnston

Comely Bank

Edinburgh

I was dismayed to read of Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s view that the Conservative Party in Scotland would be “letting Scotland down” if it failed to back Murdo Fraser in the current leadership contest (your report, 10 October). It is my belief that this would happen if it failed to back Ruth Davidson.

Surely, over decades, the party has complacently and consistently let itself down, by ignoring its responsibility to attract new and younger members and failing to take on board the input of its existing members?

Further, its top echelons have done little to challenge accusations of Thatcherism, and have found themselves daubed with the same brush.

Ruth Davidson does not have the albatross of Margaret Thatcher’s legacy round her neck. She has rejected the Scottish “race memory” of Thatcherism by asserting that here and now is not the place for it – and neither is the future.

She is young, competent, committed and, above all, confident in her ability to attract younger people to a party which has for too long been secure in its existing ageing membership at the expense of its future, which lies not with them, but with their children, grandchildren and the wider population.

This fits well with her commitment to the inclusion of grass roots members in taking a renewed Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party forward.

(Dr) Barbara Paterson

Ravelston Park

Edinburgh

Your article, “Fraser vows to launch new forums”, further serves to endorse Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s view that Murdo Fraser “has the leadership qualities of a very significant kind”.

Mr Fraser has demonstrated his clear grasp of the need to promote economic growth in Scotland and his willingness to work with business leaders and charities strikes a chord with much of the electorate.

The Scottish Tories therefore need to take a bold step and support Mr Fraser’s leadership bid if they are to avoid a further spell on the sidelines. Scottish politics urgently needs the leadership qualities of someone like him to provide where Labour has failed, and offer a creditable alternative to the SNP.

In the Scottish Parliament elections in May, many voters chose to support Alex Salmond and the SNP because they simply didn’t feel there was any better alternative. Now is the time to change that by giving Mr Fraser the support he needs to take the Scottish Tories forward.

Russell B Pillar

Irvine Road

Kilmarnock

The pundits would have us believe that the Scottish Conservative leadership election is a two-horse race between Murdo Fraser and Ruth Davidson. The more perceptive, however, have begun to acknowledge that Jackson Carlaw is in with a very real chance because his leadership qualities are being increasingly recognised.

As one of the only two Scots to have served as party president and party chairman, I know how important it is to have knowledge and understanding of the party and its members, and the experience to deal with the many challenges of leadership.

Jackson Carlaw certainly has that experience and an unequalled record of service to the party.

He can win this leadership election, not because one group of members is unsettled by the prospect of the party being disbanded while others are anxious about the lack of experience and track record of another aspirant.

Jackson can win because he has made clear his absolute priorities to stand firm for the Union, to develop policies which are appropriate for the needs of Scotland, to make the party an effective campaigning organisation and to keep it united in the face of SNP efforts to break up the United Kingdom.

He rightly hails the successes of past Conservative governments while honestly acknowledging the failures. He is a leader who is shaped by success as well as adversity.

Some may see this leadership election as an indulgence when there is such a vital challenge to oppose those who wish to see Scotland leaving the UK.

What the party and the nation now need is an experienced and principled leader who can quickly re-unite the party, form an effective opposition in the Scottish Parliament, take on the separatists and thereby fulfil its destiny to protect the Union.

(Sir) Michael Hirst

Kippen

Stirlingshire

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