Sssh, we’re Tories

I normally don’t agree with anything Fraser Grant says but his comments on the performance of the Conservatives in the Edinburgh Leith Walk by-election are spot on (“Tory Poll defeat”, Letters, 15 April).

On the ballot paper for the council elections in England on 2 May, some Conservative party candidates describe themselves as “Local Conservatives”, having had Electoral Commission approval for this a couple of months ago.

Their label on ballot papers in every previous election has been “The Conservative Party

candidate”, or recently “Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives”, another name the Electoral Commission approved for the Tories.

Why have they dropped the word “party”, and introduced “local”, or indeed, mentioned Ruth Davidson? The Conservatives are terrified of being associated with the shambles of the party nationally, with its splits, resignations and angry MPS bitterly denouncing their own leader and demanding

she resigns. The word “local”, or the reference to Ruth Davidson, is intended to imply that they are nothing to do with the lunatics at Westminster. But they are still Conservatives, and they should take responsibility for the actions of their colleagues.

PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh