Summary
THE chair of the Conservative Party in Scotland, a household name in his own household, yesterday urged his party to return to the days of discipline and loyalty, qualities, he suggested, for which his party was once renowned. Well, up to a point Mr Duncan. There were certainly periods, notably in the mid-Thatcher years, when the troops were more than happy to worship at the shrine of Our Lady of Resolute Purpose and fall in willingly behind her Scottish representatives on earth.
But these were halcyon times in the blue corner before the species known as elected Conservative members of the UK parliament became endangered, then all but extinct. Scottish salvation came in the unlikely guise of devolution, a policy against which many in the party fulminated, but which permitted a tidy number to reach the benches at Holyrood via proportional representation. The mild euphoria that greeted this reincarnation as a fighting force seems to have dissipated somewhat in recent days and weeks as the adage that your political opponents are opposite but your enemies behind was made f lesh. Now one member of that erstwhile merry band is spending more time with his multicoloured shirt collection, having been found guilty of high treason, while other colleagues being fingered for the McLetchie murder are scurrying around issuing retrospective pledges of loyalty and devotion to the fallen leader.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Woman Who Would Be Queen in a Turbulent Realm
Something of an inf lammatory baptism all in all forAnnabel Goldie, due to be crowned queen of all she surveys tomorrow barring unforeseen accidents. Queen of a somewhat turbulent realm where half the lieges want a robust, right-wing, independent, tartan-fringed party and the ...
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