The youngest had texted me and told me she had something really funny to show me when I got home from work. As soon as I saw it, I recognised the writing and knew exactly what it was. She had been intrigued to find a hand written unstamped letter but puzzled why it had come with the post. As it was addressed to “Dear neighbour” she had theorised that she was quite within her rights to open it and found a lovely Christmas card and a handwritten letter. Turning it over she found that it was from the Liberal Democrats and the letter from our MP, Jamie Stone.
She was impressed with 9 year old Fraser’s lovely design in the card and the list of emergency contact details for over the Christmas period that were detailed inside but then she began to read the letter and her opinion swiftly changed. It didn’t start well; it mentioned the passing of “our beloved queen” to which I heard her mutter “speak for yourself”.
There were three further paragraphs making up the letter which you would have expected to extol the work that he and his party have done over the last year yet all 3 were to do with the SNP or independence. The first of these actually managed to mention Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP and independence in its solitary sentence! The second sentence/paragraph made the curious claim that because of the SNP being in power, elderly people now had to find their own way to hospital appointments. I know I am (slightly) younger than that age group but unless my wider family have been kept in the dark, was it not ever thus?
The final “paragraph” borrowed a quote from the LibDems former bedfellows, the Tories, informing us that “now is not the time” for IndyRef 2. In the eyes of a 14 year old, she found it really funny that with an opportunity to reach every household in the constituency, he chose to use it to talk about the SNP stating that there is no such thing as bad publicity and all he did was put the SNP into everybody’s minds rather than the LibDems. She also said that she thought it was very underhand to send a card but use it to slate the SNP.
Another “local” politician who uses every opportunity that he can to run the SNP down was one of our ward councillors. A vocal Conservative Councillor in Inverness, he frequently went head to head with our SNP councillor particularly as they were both their respective group leaders. When last years local elections were held, he announced that he would now be standing in our ward and depending on which piece of information he put out, was either in the process of moving or had already moved to our ward – information we knew to be untrue and he had no intention of moving. A further twist was that the incumbent Tory Councillor who had been going to stand down in our ward was now going to stand in the Inverness seat that would become vacant. To everybody’s surprise, not least our departing local Councillor, both were elected to their new wards. Almost immediately our new Councillor was replaced as Group Leader and, as suspected, all went quiet. A four person ward was once again was left with one Councillor doing all the work to all intents and purposes, which politically was great, but locally a collaborative approach between parties had produced some great outcomes for the ward. His sole aim was to vote against anything the SNP proposed and to poke holes in anything that was currently being undertaken; a role he had enthusiastically undertaken previously but luckily enough, his heart – or indeed his physical presence – no longer seemed to be in it.
The rumour mill began grinding again recently and eventually the Tory Councillor announced that he had “left” the party. No longer was he prepared to listen to someone in Inverness telling him what was good for Caithness – a position he had greatly enjoyed previously – and he was nonplussed that his party would no longer tolerate his outbursts. Having previously prided himself on voting against everybody else just because he could and for being a thorn in everybody’s side, at least he had been able to be held to group rules. Now an independent, there is no such control anymore and this will not be good for the ward no matter what spin he puts on it. Of course, he could always be invited to join the SNP/Independent group administration!
Excellent article!
We are reaching the stage where the ” work with other parties for the common good ” line that is trotted out by the National journos is becoming irrelevant. They hate us and will do their masters biding no matter what. I despise them for their toadyness !