Scottish Tory Campaign in Glasgow South West collapses as Tory Candidate Heather MacLeod walks away from “nest of vipers” with “reactionary views”.

Dear All

Tories don’t change; they will always be the ‘nasty’ party in Scotland.

Now, the Tory Campaign to win the Glasgow South West seat at the Westminster General Election has imploded with their candidate Heather MacLeod resigning in disgust at senior Tories.

She stated about the type of calibre of Tories in Scotland;

“I resigned out of complete and utter disgust at fellow parliamentary candidates. I couldn’t stand on a platform with these people. So I stood down.”

The trick used by the Tories at present in trying to shed its nasty image and embraced compassionate conservatism is concern for the poor.

Heather MacLeod claims that a section of the Scottish party is a “nest of vipers” with “reactionary views”.

But she should have known that is what they always were!

Heather MacLeod set up a social justice think-tank called Social Justice Scotland along with Fiona Houston, the Tory candidate for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill.

The idea was modelled along the principles of Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice however she wanted the body not to be aligned to one political party.

This would have allowed for a wide exchange of views.

The Scottish Tories were not happy with this idea and wanted it tied more closely to them.

She said;

“We were to be non-partisan and independent, looking at evidence-based research.”

What happened to her next was completely out of order and disgusting, because she wanted the organisation to be politically neutral to widen its appeal, she was subject to a rather nasty smear campaign.

In a page straight out of the ‘nasty’ party handbook, Fiona Houston arrived at “clear the air” meetings in December and another candidate separately produced public financial records which showed that some of Mrs MacLeod’s previous companies had been liquidated.

What did this information have to do with the issue at hand?

Absolutely nothing, there are many reasons why people’s businesses fail and this wasn’t relevant to the proceedings and therefore none of the two Tory Candidates business in what was an internal matter.

This episode shows how Scotland still has to be on guard against mean spirited bitter Scottish Tories who can’t understand why they are rejected by the people of Scotland.

Both Tory ‘nasty’ Candidates Hamira Khan and Fiona Houston are standing to win seats in Scotland.

Hamira Khan stands against SNP MP John Mason in Glasgow East, Houston in Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, they will both lose.You can’t trust a Tory.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University