Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson uses speech to demand increased powers for Holyrood, U turns in politics happen but it is best to have a position, where’s the substance, where’s the beef, and the Scottish Tories wonder why they struggle to get elected!

Dear All

“U-turn if you want to, the lady’s not for turning”.

Margaret Thatcher.

Fast forward and now we have Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

Apparently she is for turning; however the wisdom can be questioned.

The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party has for the last 20 years going down the pan.

They can’t get many people elected, their membership is mostly elderly, their direction is wrong; their policies don’t help people at the bottom of society.

And they continually wonder why they can’t get elected, they are stuck in a time warp, Scotland hates Tories.

That is the problem, and that is the situation that must be addressed, how to win back people.

20 years of dying at the ballot box.

On election night 2011, one of the loudest cheers in the SECC was when Ruth Davidson won a seat on the Glasgow list, that isn’t an achievement.

No Tory Candidate came even close to win a first past the post seat in Glasgow.

Ruth Davidson has turned, she will today argue for increased powers for Holyrood beyond the current Calman proposals.

And she wants to campaign to lower taxes and cut public spending.

She won’t do well at the ballot box, although people like paying less tax and cutting public spending, there is a realisation that services must be provided for all, and that costs money.

Ms Davidson is now standing on ground; that Murdo Fraser previously trod on, which prompted Murdo to send mocking messages to her.

Murdo Fraser wanted to radically change the Tories by scrapping the party and setting up a new party, the Tory brand in Scotland he saw as toxic.

But the Tories need more than a name change, because to get anywhere they need the working class of Scotland, and so far despite a lot of talk, they still remain and are seen as an anti working class party who care more for the rich than the poor.

Bedroom tax!

Seen as a ‘great idea’ by the Tory faithful, when it makes them completely publicly unelectable in the mainly ‘urban islands’, that’s cities and towns to you and me.

Her Edinburgh speech said:

"New powers over tax should mean one thing: tax rates being reduced and the burden of tax being lifted for every Scottish family. We've already set out our proposal for a 1p cut in income tax for Scottish families, and new powers over tax in Scotland could let us go further."

Window dressing, did the SNP’s penny for Scotland work?

No!

Why would she think this would work now is beyond me, for a politician, you think they would be more smart.

Here is some more of her stuff:

"My experience of the Scottish Parliament is there are too many members whose sole concern is how money should be spent. There are politicians who have little or no concern for those who generate the money in the first place – the over-burdened and under-appreciated Scottish taxpayer. Politicians who regard taxpayers' money as theirs by right, not hard-earned cash they take on trust to spend on the people of Scotland's behalf. Politicians who take no responsibility for difficult decisions and palm blame off on those who do."

She added:

"We will examine the mix of taxes best suited to achieving that goal, but the principle is clear. If you spend the public's money, then you must be accountable to the public both for how it is spent and how it is raised.

"The devolution of new powers over taxation to the Scottish Parliament means it would be the responsibility of the parliament to use those powers in the best interests of the Scottish people."

Ruth Davidson makes a lot of speeches, and her ideas don’t connect with ordinary people, what she fails to realise is that in the main, people don’t give a shit what she does in parliament, they are looking at the end product.

If the Scottish Tories think this will return them to fortune, they are sadly mistaken; it is almost like looking at people who don’t want to get elected.

In a nutshell, the Scottish Tories are seen as people who kick the working class in face, and then can’t understand why the same people don’t vote for them.

I have just taken off my ‘kicking you in the face hat’ and now I am wearing my ‘standing for election hat!’

Scottish voters tend to wear their 'long memory hat'.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University