One-trick pony Tories are heading for a fall
“I HAVE been inundated today from friends really fed up with letters about independence...” So one candidate for the forthcoming council elections has said.
His complaint was not aimed at the SNP, who are campaigning purely on local service issues – including our commitment to double the hours of free childcare.
No. This was aimed at the Conservatives, whose entire council election campaign swings on the constitution.
The frustrated comment about the Tories’ union obsession was made by one of their own. The councillor in question is Dennis Male, formerly the Tory member for Langholm, Dumfriesshire, in the heart of the constituency of David Mundell, Scotland’s only Tory MP.
Recently, he shared a letter he and other voters had received from Mundell, supposedly about the local elections.
Except that it did not contain a single line about local issues or how the Tories would deliver council services. It was headlined, “No to a Second Independence Referendum.”
The first paragraph continued the theme: “The council election on May 4 is a clear opportunity to send a message to Nicola Sturgeon – No to a second independence referendum.”
Paragraph two promises the council candidate will “be a strong voice against any plans brought forward to break up our United Kingdom”. The next has variations on the theme of, “Stop the SNP”.
Call me old fashioned but I thought you elected a local councillor to be a strong voice for the local community, not to sound off about the precious union uber alles.
Male, who is now standing as an independent against his former colleagues, is appalled at this swing towards ideology over community.
He says recent Tory election materials “are devoid of any local thought and relying on political rhetoric written for them by out of touch national politicians”.
There are certainly plenty of local issues to discuss in Langholm – a former textile town whose last mill shut its doors five years ago.
Aside from the local economy, there is sheltered accommodation for the elderly, urban regeneration, empty shops, the flood risk proposals, opportunities for young people and, of course, potholes.
Nothing about these appear on the Tory literature.
Ruth Davidson, who visited the town on Monday, had nothing to say on these critical matters either.
Instead, she posed with a “No IndyRef2” banner with a unionist rent-a-mob, very few of whom belonged to the town. When an important meeting was held recently on reconnecting the town to the Borders railway, not a single Tory turned up.
It’s the same all around the country, where local Tory candidates have nothing to say about what matters in the towns and villages they hope to represent.
The entire Tory council campaign across Scotland is infatuated with the union. It appears the Conservative candidates are dutybound to deploy this single-issue bilge from central office.
When are the Tories going to be called out on this screeching hypocrisy? They claim the SNP are distracted by talk of independence. But nobody else talks about it anywhere near as much as Davidson and her unpleasant band.
In the parliamentary chamber, they bring the constitution into every speech, no matter how irrelevant. They seem to think no one will notice. But how could anyone fail to see the irony of Davidson et al screaming about IndyRef2 and demanding Sturgeon “gets on with the day job” while the First Minister is in America announcing major trading and business opportunities for Scotland?
Back at local level, the story is much the same. In Dumfries and Galloway, our council candidates’ literature has no mention of independence – but lots about reversing the rises in care charges for disabled people imposed by the council, on improving transport, on doubling childcare provision and setting out a regional growth plan.
The Tories think they did well in the Scottish Parliament election with their one dimensional campaign. In truth, they still polled less than Margaret Thatcher did in Scotland.
If you repeat the same negative message ad infinitum, folk stop listening. The one-trick Tory pony is failing and could fall at the council election hurdle.