Friday, September 3, 2010

Tories declare there are no no-go areas in Scotland, Goldie and co hide in safe and secure Motherwell College, closest thing to the Alamo?













Dear All

The Scottish Tories are plain barmy.

Yesterday they returned to Ravenscraig in Motherwell, Ravenscraig is synonymous with steel making and the site was closed down during the Margaret Thatcher era.

This closure of the biggest steel plant in Western Europe was a disaster and made the place a wasteland.

The return to the scene of destruction of an entire community is a daft idea to highlight that the Conservatives are back.

A misjudgement and a PR disaster but this is a hallmark of Scottish Tory strategy, out of touch with the people but the Tories are daft enough to think this was a success.

Annabel Goldie is taking her Tory team around Scotland for Shadow Cabinet meetings much in the same way as previously done by other parties.

Their message or signal is the Conservatives are back and they are no longer hated.

Naivety at best and that is being very kind.

Goldie is saying that there are no no-go areas for a blue rosette in Scotland.

This statement doesn’t address the Tory problem because saying no no-go areas for a Tory isn’t saying that a Tory will work in what she describes as a no-go area.

Their problem is they don't want to go!

In order to trot out the predictable ‘hope and aspiration’ model of politics, Goldie and her team used as a focus a visit to the shiny new £70 million Motherwell College.

A safe option.

Goldie insisted:

“Over the summer the Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet has been meeting across Scotland and I have had visits to virtually every part of the country. There is no area we don’t want to go to”.

Other than elections when have people ever seen a Tory campaigning in their area?

She added:

“It was very important to come to Lanarkshire to see first hand the very positive activities going at this iconic new college at Ravenscraig. I can honestly say I have never encountered any hostility, including from local people I asked for directions to the college today who were very pleasant.”

She shouldn’t confuse good manners with ‘like’ or ‘acceptance’ by the general public.

As some kind of proof of a Tory revival and no no-go areas: Linsey McKay, the 28-year-old Conservative councillor for Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig was trotted out.

Her father spent years trying to get elected; she managed it at the first attempt thanks to the proportional voting system.

In order to get elected the goal posts had to be moved to let other parties ‘win’ seats, if however it was first past the post, she would only have her Tesco job to fall back on.

So, are the Tories forgiven in the Ravenscraig area?

Retired steelman Ian McIvor, 74 said:

“No chance.”

This wasn’t an exact quote as Ian used a more robust answer to the questions.

He added:

“It’s not forgotten among Scottish workers, definitely not around here. A lot of those who worked in the steelworks will have the same opinion as me.”

It seems that despite the spin and the PR of Annabel Goldie and her crew visiting Motherwell, the love isn’t there but the hate runs deep.

I guess that is why you don’t see Tory ‘activists’ on the street other than at election time.

Scotland hates Tories and Tories hate Scottish people.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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