I'm pleased to hear the Conservative Party have opened a campaign
shop in Stornoway, and that the former leader of the party at Holyrood,
Annabel Goldie, will call round in the isles during the current election
campaign. The previous candidate, in the 2010 campaign, made complete
fool of herself by suggesting that her top priority when elected would
be the refurbishment of the pier at Achmore. Local people will
immediately recognise the joke and breathtaking idiocy of the statement.
I'm not a natural Tory supporter (my leanings tend to be rather left of
centre), but my attitude towards them during this campaign is
different. I feel it is important that the emphasis is shifted from the
previous Labour / Conservative dichotomy and focused on what I perceive
to be the present and continuing danger to the United Kingdom posed by
the Scottish National Party. There is no sincerity in the SNP's
assertion that they're willing to go into a coalition with Labour.
Labour is the SNP's adversary at Holyrood and was referred to as "dying"
by the latter party's leader, Nicola Sturgeon. Labour's leadership is
weak and stuck in the past. As with the 2007 Holyrood election, the
party is bedeviled by complacency, assuming that their natural support
in Scotland will rally round. Really? What happened during the Scottish
Independence referendum poll in September last year? Glasgow, Red
Clydeside, was one of the few districts to return a Yes vote.
I
am not at all sure of the abiding support for our SNP MP, Angus Macneil.
He has recently been severely criticised on several local issues - some
would say he is not very interested in any matter pertaining to the
islands north of the Sound of Barra. Anything to diminish support for
the SNP should, in my perspective, be welcomed and encouraged. If that
includes a strong Tory candidate in the Western Isles (and other places
in Scotland), so be it. We cannot permit any active involvement of the
SNP, whether it be overtly or covertly, in the government of the United
Kingdom. They are, after all, only interested in breaking up the UK.
Did I say I am not eligible to vote in the election on 7 May? I'm still entitled to an opinion, and you now have it.
