Victory for Tories 'will put an end to Union'

Published on Saturday 5 April 2008 19:47

A RISING Conservative star has claimed a Tory victory at the next election would be the "biggest threat to the Union since Bonnie Prince Charlie".

Leslie Clark said he fears his party winning the next general election as he believes it will make Scottish independence inevitable.

The President of the University of Aberdeen Conservative and Unionist Association also claimed that disgruntled southern voters are looking for their own version of William Wallace to "free the oppressed English nation" from Gordon Brown and the Scots.

Clark made the comments in the Conservative student journal Blue Granite. He holds the position of political officer with the Aberdeen South branch of the Scottish Conservatives.

In an essay entitled, 'The English Nation: Hammered by the Scots?', Clark wrote: "We may well have a situation whereby a Conservative victory at the next election could be the biggest threat to the Union since Bonnie Prince Charlie.

"The SNP are itching for a Tory victory and it's an easy strategy to pinpoint.

"When the proponents of devolution argued that the Tories had no moral mandate running Scotland in the early 1990s when they only had 11 seats, just imagine what it will be like once the Tories win at Westminster with barely any Scottish representation!

"Alex Salmond will claim that they have no real democratic legitimacy to run Scotland. We could then see a seismic shift in public opinion."

He added: "The United Kingdom has turned into the divided kingdom. A Union once based on fairness has become torn apart by political inequality."

Clark, who is featured in the magazine in full dinner dress clutching a can of cider, claims "scare tactics" about independence were counterproductive.

"We should not frighten or bribe Scotland into maintaining the Union. We should not treat the electorate as children.

"Scotland and England would survive perfectly well apart – not that I advocate that policy.

"Just because the Union succeeded in the past does not mean it should be automatically accepted today.

He predicted that growing English antagonism towards Scotland's "multiple perks via the British taxpayer which are not available in England" would provoke a major constitutional crisis in the near future.

"It will take one divisive event in which Gordon Brown needs the support of his Scottish MP's to pass legislation in order to push many over the edge."