Tories have a hard task to convince voters

As the outpourings from the various candidates for the Scottish Tory leadership and their supporters reach the point where they might have to climb up to get in the gutter, some interesting nuggets have appeared.

Jackson Carlaw’s proposal for term limits on list Tory MSPs sounds a rather good idea, especially as the list published of just how much policy work and interaction with MPs, MEPs, councillors and activists the present group have achieved suggests that it is too easy for a list MSP in opposition to do very little.

The real problem with the Tories in Scotland is not going to be solved by a change of leader. The leadership since 1997 has managed a spectacular decline when in England the Tories achieved a majority in 2010 and even in Wales there was an increase in support.

Part of the problem is that the management supported by big backers and the generous MSP finances see no need to work constantly by having constituency associations in all parts of Scotland.

Their policy of only bothering the electorate in the four weeks before an election and being silent at other times does not provide much chance for convincing the voters of their cause.

However, their leadership problem is compounded by the fact that three of the candidates have been part of the system since 2001, 2003 and 2007 respectively and the fourth candidate was the manager of the leader’s office during the latest disaster.

What is needed is a totally fresh outlook, but it would appear that all of the candidates were happy with the dire situation until the leadership election opened. Certainly, none of them seems to have been outspoken about the way things have been run since 1997 and tried to do anything about it.

Bruce D Skivington

Strath

Gairloch, Wester Ross

I am watching with considerable interest Murdo Fraser’s bold attempt to change Scotland’s Tories. The logical position for his party, which promotes the virtues of sturdy self-reliance, is perhaps a little further along the road he is treading. We can but hope. The same old Tories, however, with a different name won’t achieve an awful lot. A purpose of amendment is only effective if determined by genuine contrition and so, in the spirit of constructive assistance, may I point out some opportunities to display this publicly.

A start could be made by an apology to the people of Scotland for the determined and deliberate lies that were invented and fed to them (by both Tory and Labour) about the value of Scottish oil.

At every election for more than 40 years, the Scots were told the oil was running out. The truth, as exposed recently by the belated publication of the government-sponsored McCrone report, was that decades of oil could have made Scotland about the richest nation in the world.

This oil lie is still in use by many who imagine they are fit to represent us.

Then an apology could be offered for the destruction of Scotland’s industrial base and its critical manufacturing capacity by Margaret Thatcher. Rather than fight for Scotland, most of Scotland’s Tories stood shoulder to shoulder with Thatcher in support of this vandalism. We are unlikely to forget this. Many of these people are still in significant positions in the Tory Party in Scotland, though generally they don’t seem to be supporting Mr Fraser.

They could also apologise for the world’s biggest collection of nuclear weapons stored in our country without our consent and against our will, or the deaths of hundreds of young Scots as a result of illegal and dishonest invasions and interference in faraway countries whose affairs are none of our business.

Most of these suggested apologies could generally be deployed by any of our opposition in the Scottish Parliament. Recently it has been revealed the Tories (and the Lib Dems) have been co- ordinating behind the scenes with Labour’s Jim Murphy to refine plans to block the people of Scotland from having a referendum.

So an apology for this affront to democracy would also be in order.

I’m not holding my breath.

David McEwan Hill

Dalinlongart

Sandbank, Argyll