As the wheel of life slowly revolves, around comes Buggins turn in the small wierd world that is the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, but not for long it appears. My successor in the Scottish Parliament, Murdo Fraser, for so long the bridesmaid to the ever unwedded Miss Goldie is about to don the wedding veil and elbowing aside the maiden lady take his proud place at the helm of the Titanic , but not for long it appears. For this blushing novitiate is about to pull the chain and flush the not so ancient party away to the seaside.
Master Fraser has decided that if the Tories elect him as leader,he will abolish the Party and form a new one , in an attempt to gather into one unholy tent the ranting, wild eyed, flashing toothed remnants of the right, he is prepared to fling out not just the baby with the bath water, but the soap, rubber ducks and the bath itself. In the way of all those that allah has blessed with madness, he appears to have neglected to think through any practicalities and like any shoddy do it yourselfer, has neglected to properly prepare before applying the anaglypta.
In the manner of a bus driver elected by the passengers to set fire to the charabanc, he has lost sight of the the fact that the vast majority of his colleagues in the Scottish Parliament owe their seats to them being placed on a list by those very members of the club that he proposes to bar the doors to. What legitimacy will there be to any sitting MSP who replaces a retiring member, as is the current system, when they belong to a party which no longer exists. And what of current members? Fraser's rivals, and fellow candidates, including those opposed to his plans are what? expected to turn on their heads and join a new grouping which they didn't want in the first place? Or do we expect all the Tory (as was) benches to resign en masse and be replaced by whom? Or in the case of constituency members will they provoke a by election? To march back in, triumphant under a new crimson and black banner ( most of the colours of the spectrum already claimed by other parties).
Whilst all this carping may seem a bit in the esoteric realms of navel gazing, and dismissed as mere detail, the whole proposition has been hailed by some commentators who even the loathed former Tories found unpalatable. Certain hisuitely challenged pseudo journalists and dicredited historians no doubt relish the prospect of their re-entry into the ranks of the foam flecked. Suddenly a new asylum has appeared to give shelter to the mad, the bad and the dangerous. Whether the majority of basically decent but misguided eldery conservatives will wish to join a movement that welcomes back the traitors and denigrators of the previous party we will have to wait and see. I don't believe they will all roll over and let the
I wonder if there is a place in the new dawn for me, the Scottish Conservatives refused my subscription when I left the Parliament, maybe because I was rude to the ruby lipped Raymond, the former chairman. Will I like all the other backsliders,and there are more than a few, be ushered back through the portals? But what sort of future will it promise, what vision can it proffer?
I still believe there is room for a right of centre view, what I am not sure of is whether I like the view, Perhaps I will wait and see what happens, no rush. There is a time for all of us, not sure whether that of Murdo has yet arrived though.
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