Scottish Conservatives want a fresh start in Scotland, situation is dire, they need a new party, new policies and new people; deliver social justice is the key, like football they need to enter the transfer market and get new strikers!

Dear All

If you are a Tory in Scotland generally your chances of getting elected to public office are at best slim and mostly unelectable.

Scotland doesn’t vote for the Scottish Conservative Party because of its prior history and legacy of Thatcher.

Thatcher’s treatment of Scottish people is burned into the psyche of Scots, if there was a pilot to treat people badly; it was earmarked for Scotland first.

Any Tory leader in Scotland is a token leader who is permanently benched on the sidelines, there is history, an issue of trust and a deep loathing that if they get elected in large numbers, they will have an opportunity to enhance the wealth of the few at the expense of the many.

Ruth Davidson is the current leader; she concedes Scotland does not trust her party.

In order to make people vote Tory in Scotland various gimmicks were use such as saying things like the Tories stand for ‘commonsense’, a slogan which failed to float with voters.

Deeds and new policies are required, acts so spectacular that people are forced to stop and look round, we are talking epic stuff to remove a legacy.

Even Tories recognize that there is something serious wrong with them, their vote has collapsed, membership is small and they are entrenched in an old mindset where rather than apologizing for what has happened in the past, they say are proud of it.

Like the dinosaurs, the party is well fucked!!!!

Some in the Tory Party like Murdo Fraser and some others recognized the scale of the problem, if you have a brand that doesn’t sell; you have to bring new products to the market place.

Although there is a need to have a centre right party in Scottish politics, it has to be a party that can cross the line and pick and implement centre left policies particularly on social justice issues.

Murdo Fraser was on the right track, however, his journey wasn’t taking his party to an end destination that signaled a re-birth, he had a raw product, which needed someone to pop the hood and fine tune it for political races ahead.

There was much talk about long-needed reorganisation but if people don’t believe in you, they won’t come out and work for you, and if the message is wrong as well, on a rainy day, you might just catch a cold for your efforts.

No one in politics likes losing especially if they have worked hard.

But hard work isn’t enough, your cause must be just, it must have a hook that catches ordinary people, people want to know, if they back you, will you fight to the death for them.

Can anyone say that type of passion is in the Scottish Tory Party regarding working class people?

That is their untapped market, unlock that and Scottish politics takes on a new dimension completely.  

Murdo Fraser wanted a new centre right party, not a new version of the Conservatives.

Rightly or wrongly depending where you stand, it was bold, but if it was going to work, then a new party couldn’t have been a replacement for the Conservatives; nor a club for former Conservative members and their MSPs to bounce through the door like the keys to a new house.

It would have to be a new party, with new people advocating new policies.

In politics, some people are better at certain aspects and in other areas, their vision is completely warped.

Recently; rich farmer and Tory MSP Alex Johnstone was quite outspoken when he gave his ‘fuck the poor’ speech on the unfairness of the bedroom tax.

Johnstone is alright Jack!

2013 and this attitude still runs through the Scottish Tories and they wonder why they can’t get working class people to vote for them?

Last week, 18 months since Ruth Davidson took over the leadership; she gave a speech calling for change, all change, but probably not!

Her speech may or may not be a turning point, the current strategy of shouting louder, changing the logo, burying the head in the sand, and a mystical date in the future of everything will be turned around is now acknowledged that the party’s problems are more fundamental than just bad marketing and a big smile for the press and punters.

Scotland doesn’t trust Tories.

Can Ruth Davidson find the right solution to that bunny?

Well, the problem was Westminster, so her window of opportunity has to be to correct that problem, if she can’t fix that then the next Holyrood election is just business as usual.

2015 is the only opportunity she gets; new ideas of epic scale on social justice have to be rolled out that put her tanks on the lawn of Labour and the SNP. She needs votes from both; less we forget there is one Tory MP in Scotland.

Big decisions are needed very quickly because the race for Westminster has already begun by Labour.

They are out and about and wanting to cement their MP block.

'Fuck the poor' hasn't worked as a strategy maybe its time to try something else.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University