Murdo’s moment

If the Scottish Conservatives are serious about serving Scotland, rather than aspiring to be nothing more than a party with a declining support base stuck on the fringes of Scottish politics, they will elect Murdo Fraser leader.

Murdo is by far the only candidate with the credibility to deliver not just a change of image and presentation, but the substantial change within the party’s outlook on devolution, how it approaches post-devolution Scotland, and policies fit for the 21st century.

We need a party on the centre-right which will constructively speak up for Scotland, even if on occasion that runs contrary to what Westminster desires. That is the healthier approach to maintaining the Union, which the majority of Scots still desire.

Electing Murdo as leader could be the Scottish Conservatives’ “Clause 4” moment, similar to the manner in which Tony Blair performed the unthinkable to his party – speaking to the wider public and pool of crucial donors and financiers, he demonstrated how far the Labour Party had progressed from political irrelevance by making such a fundamental change to the symbolism of the Labour Party.

That change was symbolic, but it reinforced the substantial, real changes to their candidates, policies and narrative.

We must do likewise, and only Murdo is able and willing to see those modernising changes through.

The real question at the heart of this leadership choice is this: who do we as a party seek to serve? Ourselves or the people of Scotland? I wish to serve the people of Glasgow first and foremost, and the party is merely a vehicle to assist me in this objective.

If the party is the barrier to those aims, rather than the individual candidate’s abilities, then it no longer serves its purpose.

Andrew Morrison

Scottish Conservative candidate, Glasgow City Council

Clincart Road

Glasgow

Lord Forsyth, as former captain of the Titanic – sorry, leader of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party – is quite right that there is nothing wrong with the ship except its course (your report, 12 October).

Three of the current leadership candidates are happy with that course; one would like to sail a new ship on the same course!

None of them is willing to consider an alternative course that would put clear blue water between them and other vessels.

Otto Inglis

Inveralmond Grove

Edinburgh