Friday, August 14, 2009

Tory, Ruth Davidson fights for third place in Glasgow North East


Dear All

Desperate Scottish Tories have decided to try the Chloe Smith approach to see if it will work in Scotland.

Ruth Davidson is a first time contender who has been a party member for less than a year; she is their fresh newbie candidate in Glasgow North East.

So, it looks like it is being billed as a battle of the Beeb by the press but less everyone forgets in Glasgow East, the Tory Candidate, Davena Rankin pulled 1,639 votes, only 6.3% of the votes cast.

And that was with parts of Glasgow East being affluent areas.

In Glasgow North East, there isn’t the same situation for Ruth Davidson to work with, it’s hard core Labour all the way.

Ms Davidson has been endorsed by Tory leader David Cameron; he also endorsed Davena Rankin and she got wiped out, could it be he is a jinx?

Cameron said;

"It is great that she has pledged to fight a clean and honest campaign. Politics is about winning arguments, not smears and fears”.

Given reports elsewhere about Ms. Davidson’s background; she doesn’t have an option but I am sure that others will cover this in great detail.

Annabel Goldie, Tory leader in Scotland said;

“I look forward to this by-election. There are no no-go areas for the Scottish Conservatives in Scotland”.

Or votes, or support or like Annabel.

So, what are the Tories doing here?

Well in the bigger picture; they will be trying to get more votes that the Lib Dems and be angling for third place. If the Tories poll fourth or worse than that it would be a disaster for them.

Of Ms Davidson's background she says;

"I'm from Glasgow, my mum and dad are from Maryhill and Merrylee, and I've worked in Glasgow most of my life”.

Not much of a bio but I am sure she will fill in the blanks in due course.

Then to show she has a sense of humour she added;

“So, being from Glasgow, why am I Tory?”

In Scotland I am sure that only God knows and that will run like wildfire through people’s minds.

“Well because I like what David Cameron has to offer and I think the Labour Party has taken this great city for granted for too long and has nothing new to offer”.

The Tories haven’t anything to offer Scotland!

“Every hour of every working day 70 Scots lose their jobs. It's the Conservatives who have the new ideas. We secured the reduction in local rates for 150,000 small businesses”.

Actually, the SNP brought forward Small Business Bonus Scheme which was one of the key SNP Government Policies.

On the law and order front she says;

“We are pushing for prisoners to serve the sentences they are given”.

What if it is a miscarriage of justice?

"We want a drugs strategy based on abstinence, and a presumption of prison for people who carry a knife”.

In others words, not very realistic on drugs and the SNP have already said that there should be a presumption of prison for knife carriers but the sentence should be determined by a judge.

On her education policy she is completely unaware and out of touch; the Conservatives will never have control of local education as it is a devolved matter to Holyrood.

She wants to campaign on a devolved issue in a Westminister Campaign?

Is it because she knows she cannot do anything about it?

Where’s the logic in that, where’s the new politics?

If she is fighting for third place; she will have to do considerably better than this.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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