Dear All
It seems that there is another right wing party been
established in Scotland called Wealthy Nation.
The title isn't very good, because it hardly sounds
inclusive to me or serious.
It was launched last week by a group of centre-right rich
guys and academics to promote independence.
You would think that since it has rich guys and academics
they could have come up with a much better title!
On its agenda are economic empowerment, smaller government
and self-reliance.
So, is the Mark 2 Tory Party that Murdo Fraser wanted to
create?
Not quite, Murdo wanted to re-brand the Scottish
Conservatives because he realised that the Tory brand in Scotland is so toxic.
If he had got his way and set up a new name and party, would he had got
anywhere? If the same people transferred across to occupy the same positions
and with the exact same policies, it would have been a farce and a waste of
time!
But the general idea was sound in principle.
The Wealthy Nation faction says that right wing policies are
the only way for an independent Scotland to make the country richer.
Money for some people is the be all and end all but it does
come in very handy to pay bills etc.
Its founder is Michael Fry, I saw him on one of the BBC
independence debates I went to at Pacific Quay.
He is a historian who has campaigned for the Conservative
Party for over 40 years.
Given the state of the current Scottish Conservative brand,
he has had a tough time; hardly anyone is listening because the Tories don’t 'get
it' regards to poor people in Scotland.
Fry rightly argues that the Tories are "going
nowhere", you only have to listen to the likes of Tory MSP Alex Johnstone
to know why, he gets a right few quid and is reasonably well off.
As to ‘fairness’, well it could be argued that he doesn’t
give a fig about that or the poor.
What a star!
If you ask heavily bias and loaded questions without
presenting the full facts you will get the answer you want.
Michael Fry said:
"People vote more on the left
in Scotland than they do on the right but there's not much point in
independence unless we become a wealthier and happier nation.
He added on BBC Radio Scotland's Good
Morning Scotland programme:
"If Scotland is going to make itself richer
then I'm afraid the only way to do this is by adopting right-wing policies,
because only right-wing policies produce growth. Left-wing policies produce
redistribution, perhaps, but there's going to be nothing to distribute unless
we become richer first."
All roads they say lead to Rome, the question is how some
people get there, he wants to go First class, but some people appear to be
going on their hands and knees as we are all acutely aware in this country.
On the rather thorny issue of revival of the Tories
in Scotland, he said:
"It's the only way this will happen because the
Conservative Party has been stuck in a rut and is going nowhere. We have to
move into a different environment where different policies become possible, and
it seems to me and members of our group that an
independent Scotland is the only context in which that is going to
happen."
That isn't true.
The Conservatives in Scotland are part of Better Together,
that campaign will be a success, but that will not change the fortunes of Ruth
Davidson or her party, post indy defeat of Salmond and Sturgeon, people won’t
be flocking to the Conservative cause.
They didn’t previously and they won’t post Salmond defeat.
It has been suggest that because the Scottish Conservatives
took part in the Better Together campaign that people will come back to them in
droves, they have even changed their logo recently. Did anyone think that
people weren't voting Conservative because some didn't like the tree as a logo?
Do they think them being part of Better Together, as the junior partner, it
makes a difference? Is it likely people forgot they existed and somehow this 'event'
will wake them up?
Ruth Davidson is seen as 'London's man' in Scotland, nothing
else need be said.
The Scottish Conservatives can kid themselves but we all
know differently regarding revival, they need to outsource their social
policies and clamp down on people like Alex Johnstone talking.
Wealthy Nation has some rich guys in it, Fraser of Allander
Institute founder David Simpson; financier, former Tory and independent
Midlothian councillor Peter de Vink; former Tory donor Laurie Clark; and former
SNP treasurer Ian Blackford.
What their real campaigning experience is will be open to
debate, but I don’t see these people doing the hard slog on a doorstep in the
pissing rain week in and week out. I see that these people were previously
'Chiefs', are they prepared to be 'Indians'?
I think not!
Anyway Blackford said:
"The decisions affecting the people
of Scotland are best taken here, and over the course of the last few
months a number of people right across the political spectrum have come forward
and said they believe it's in the best interests of Scotland that
people support the Yes campaign."
Using the SNP line of;
”the decisions affecting the people
of Scotland are best taken here”, well, is this another SNP front or
just an attempt to woo disaffected Tories to indy?
Who knows!
We will see what’s what when the new ‘political party’
starts putting candidates up for elections.
If at all!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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