'Octagenarian dinosaur' says Thatcher not bad for Scots

Published on Sunday 6 June 2010 23:08

THE man charged with leading a review into the future of the Conservative Party north of the Border has claimed Margaret Thatcher was "not particularly bad" for Scotland.

Lord Sanderson has been appointed to chair a review into why the Conservatives did so badly in the general election north of the Border, winning only one of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats.

However, the 77-year-old, who served as a minister during Margaret Thatcher's tenure as prime minister, has defended his former boss.

The Conservative peer said he found Scottish hostility to the Thatcher governments of the 1980s "hard to bear" and that they were unfairly blamed for any problems that have affected the country.

He said: "Her years in government were not particularly bad for Scotland, but I do admit that a lot of people think that.

"I find it hard to bear when I hear that all things terrible in Scotland were under her."

The comments from Lord Sanderson of Bowden, a Tory chairman in the 1990s, come after his appointment was criticised by members of his own party.

One senior party member told The Scotsman: "In my view the appointment is a joke. The last thing the Conservative Party needs is an octogenarian dinosaur to lead the review."

Another added: "Lord Sanderson has been at the heart of the party since the late 1970s. How can he be expected to bring anything radical or new?"

Lord Sanderson has been seen as a controversial figure in the party and famously deposed Michael Forsyth as Scottish chairman in 1990.

His victory then led to a purge of right-wingers in the party machine north of the Border.

His more centrist politics also fit more with David Cameron's positioning of the party.

But there are also claims that Lord Sanderson is favoured because he agrees with the current chairman Andrew Fulton's view that the chairman should have much greater powers over the party machine in Scotland.

The party leadership is under pressure to explain why it has failed to make any significant comeback in Scotland since the 1997 wipe-out.

Meanwhile, Labour's campaign spokesman in Scotland, John Park MSP, claimed that Lord Sanderson's comments showed the Tories were "out of touch" and still had the "same old values" of the Thatcher years.

He said: "This review shows the Tories are running scared after a disastrous result in Scotland at the general election. It's ironic that the man in charge of this rebranding exercise hails from the Thatcher era.

"The Tories are on a hiding to nothing if they think Lord Sanderson is going to change their fortunes at the Holyrood elections."