Thursday, June 24, 2010

Scottish Tory election 'mastermind' Michael Crow sacked, enters gunfight armed with a catapult and gets shot to pieces, mastermind?












Dear All

Michael Crow has been sacked, after the disaster of the Westminster election it doesn’t come as a surprise.

To be fair to Michael Crow, he took on an unwinnable task in a shooting war where he didn’t even have a good catapult to fire back with.

There will be no Tory revival in Scotland, no Cameron bounce.

The reason is quite simple, Scottish people have nothing in common with Tories.

Why would anyone in their right mind vote Scottish Tory?

That is the scale of task that Scottish Tories face, ingrained entrenchment of dislike bordering on hatred.

Crow was taken on to mastermind the Conservatives' General Election campaign in Scotland but he failed to understand the people he wanted and needed to connect with didn’t figure in his strategy.

He should have targeted the poor with policies to make their situation better; he and the Tories had little to say other than rhetoric and driving around in a battle bus.

A dead party running a dead campaign with a struggling public image!

There were of course Cameron and other high profile Tory visits but the Scottish Tories lack a superstar. The current cabinet make up shows Scotland as been given over to the Lib Dems out of sight and out of mind.

In Holyrood there is no star either, Annabel Goldie tries her best but she isn’t a First Minister and everyone behind her is cannon fodder.

I rate them as ‘Councillor plus’ not MSP material.

The party won just one Scottish seat on 6 May, this shows that despite being in politics there is a lack of understanding of how to engage voters.

I have never seen a Tory activist campaigning in my area in my life let alone a candidate out with election time, in fact during the Westminster election I didn’t see any of the Tories in my area, not even when I cast my vote at the Polling station.

Michael Crow said he was let go as director of strategy and communications due to "financial constraints".

You have to invest to make progress.

Scottish Conservative chairman and ex MI6 spy Andrew Fulton said Mr Crow had made a "massive contribution" to the party.

Did he?

One MP elected, is that massive?

One of the Tories best chances was East Renfrewshire, 14,000 strong core vote to build on, Richard ‘goofy’ Cook couldn’t make a difference so what was he doing for 5 years?

Was he out campaigning?

EX MI6 spy Andrew Fulton said:

"Michael has been an extremely effective and efficient director of strategy and communications for the Conservative Party in Scotland. He has made a massive contribution to the Conservative Party at both a Scottish and UK level and we are extremely grateful for all the hard work and expertise he brought to the organisation. The General Election campaign he helped run was extremely professional and well organised. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints we have to let him go, but we hope he will play a role in the future of the Conservative Party in some capacity."

A well run campaign is essential but what about pre election campaigning in branches?

Did he do a review of what others were up to?

If not, why not?

Surely, he didn’t leave this to chance on the day?

Michael Crow said:

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Conservative Party and wish everyone well in the UK government and in the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections”.

The Conservatives had set a target to return a total of 11 MPs to Westminster in the election and failed.

David Mundell emerged as the party's sole Scottish member of parliament.

Poor achievement but then it wasn’t Crow's fault.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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