Reconstituting conservatism for Scots

Brian Monteith’s suggestion that Labour’s only hope is to have more Scottish voices at the top of the British party or even a Labour first minister sitting in a Labour Cabinet (Perspective, 26 September) is credible, but this is also true for the Scottish Conservatives.

As Murdo Fraser fights to create a new centre-right party and the three other candidates claim that a renewal of the existing party is the only viable solution, none of the contenders has highlighted why it is so important to increase the number of MPs at Westminster as well as the number of MSPs at Holyrood.

Many Scottish Conservatives want to see a Conservative prime minister in Downing Street but there is a greater number of Scots who wish to see Scottish politicians in key roles in the Cabinet, no matter what party they belong to, in order to represent and drive home the interests of Scotland.

So, even if Ruth Davidson, Jackson Carlow or Margaret Mitchell win the Scottish Conservative leadership race on a mandate to keep the party in its current form, and they somehow manage to get more Scottish Conservative politicians elected to Westminster to accompany David Mundell, the most they can possibly hope for is for the position of Scottish Secretary to go to a Scot.

However, if Murdo Fraser is as equally successful in the elections with his new right-of-centre party then they would have the power to demand at least two Cabinet seats and also a host of other junior roles in government – giving them a much great role in running the whole of the UK.

It certainly doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work out which is the more preferable option.

Brian Pope

Scottish Conservative candidate 2005 & 07

Beechgrove

Lockerbie

Philip Lardner (Letters, 26 September) deserves praise for drawing attention to the death throes of the Scottish Conservatives.

It is not just the structure of Scottish Conservatism that is crumbling but Conservatism as a philosophy itself.

We live in an age of impending anarchy; no aspect of our lives is exempt.

Big Brother is here and “Newspeak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought”.

Hierarchy, order, tradition and discipline have all been infected and the sepsis of the 1960s has corrupted our morals, our national loyalty, our judiciary, our academics, our civil service and our media.

If there is no resurgence the present disease will be fatal for our culture and our Western society. “The writing is on the wall”.

Alastair Harper

Lathalmond

By Dunfermline