[A-List] UK state: The New Party

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

The thread title is used advisedly, given this outfit's declared aim of
scrapping devolution and buttressing "Great Britain". Quite what Durward and
his cronies plan to get out of all this is anyone's guess, although the
Tebbit thesis -- that MI6 is behind all efforts to undermine the
Conservative Party, hence the UK Independence Party -- may have some
credence here. Because the only party that stands to lose anything from this
not-so-quasi-fascist bunch is the Conservative Party, and since the Scottish
parliamentary elections come first, there is an opportunity to begin the
task of demolishing the Conservatives as a viable political force UK-wide by
weakening them in Scotland. Otherwise it is difficult to see what rationale
there is for this, other than the vanity of its millionaire sponsors, which
of course must not be discounted. But if their threat were substantive, then
there is no question that we would be hearing a lot more alarm from New
Labour, whose own quasi-fascist tendencies are in open display these days,
thanks to skin-crawlingly awful toadies like David Blunkett and "Dr" John
Reid.

------

Second Tory MSP defects to new party
ROBBIE DINWOODIE and FRANCES HORSBURGH
The Herald, 2 April 2003

A SECOND sitting Conservative MSP has defected from the party within 24
hours.

Lyndsay McIntosh, the Scottish Tories' social justice spokeswoman, announced
last night she had abandoned the party in favour of the fledgling Scottish
People's Alliance.

Earlier yesterday, Keith Harding, the Scottish Tories' local government
spokesman in the Scottish Parliament, said he was also standing as a
candidate for the SPA, just a month before the Holyrood election.

Bruce Skivington, SPA campaign director, welcomed their latest recruits.

He said: "We are delighted to welcome the second ex-Tory MSP within 24 hours
to the Scottish People's Alliance.

"Lyndsay McIntosh has been an extremely dedicated, hard-working MSP who has
always put her constituents' interests in first place.

"We are sure she will be a great asset to the Scottish People's Alliance and
believe that in joining, she adds further credibility to our party and our
policies."

He said that Mrs McIntosh would be standing as a first-past-the-post
candidate and as list MSP for Central Scotland on May 1.

Mr Harding, 64, who had been due to contest the Central Fife seat for the
Tories and was also fifth on the party's regional list for Mid-Scotland and
Fife, will contest the Stirling seat for the centre-right SPA, which only
launched last week.

A Scottish Conservative party spokesman criticised the pair for joining a
"losers' party".

He added: "They have chosen to fly a flag of convenience in a vain attempt
to get re-elected for their own personal gain.

"They have chosen to join the losers' party. We are a party of winners. They
have no place in the Scottish Conservative Party."

------

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Tories play down double defection blow
Senior figures move to new rival party

ROBBIE DINWOODIE and FRANCES HORSBURGH
The Herald, 2 April 2003

THE Scottish Tories yesterday tried to play down the impact on their
election campaign of the embarrassing defection of two of their front bench
spokesmen to a rival party.

Keith Harding had earlier yesterday confirmed he had decided to stand as a
candidate for the new Scottish People's Alliance, which held its launch last
week. Last night, Lyndsay McIntosh, the party's deputy justice spokeswoman
at Holyrood, announced she too was leaving for the SPA.

David McLetchie, the Scottish Tory leader, insisted the surprise action of
Mr Harding, his former local government spokesman, was "only a minor
distraction" but he also added: "I am disappointed that Keith has chosen to
turn his back on his friends and colleagues in the parliament and in
Stirling Council who have supported him over the last 25 years."

Mr McLetchie revealed that he had no advance warning of Mr Harding's
intentions but insisted the Tory campaign would not be derailed.

Mr Harding, 64, made his name as an MSP with his successful bill to give
councils additional powers to fine owners whose dogs foul the streets. He
had been placed fifth on the Tory regional list in Mid-Scotland and Fife and
was due to fight the Central Fife seat. He will now stand in Stirling for
the SPA and will also top his new party's Mid-Scotland and Fife list.

The former leader of Stirling Council denied he had timed his defection to
cause the Tories embarrassment, saying he had fulfilled his term as an MSP.
He had been approached by the SPA and had been impressed by its manifesto.

Mrs McIntosh, a former member of the party's Scottish executive, stood in
Kilmarnock and Loudoun four years ago, taking just under 12% of the vote in
third place, but she reached parliament through her place at the top of the
Central Scotland list.

Born in Giffnock, she is 47 and did stints as a legal secretary, civil
servant, and business consultant before her election to Holyrood, where she
was a justice committee member. She will stand for the SPA in central
Scotland.

Neither Mrs McIntosh, nor Mr Harding, are likely to fare much better atop
their regional SPA lists than they were after being placed well down their
respective Tory lists - a point made by their former party.

But with Mr McLetchie due to hold a press briefing this morning to flag up
his party's campaign and manifesto launch at Murrayfield stadium tomorrow,
the defections hardly send out the right signals.

SPA policy commitments include abolition of the parliament in its present
form, a 3p in the pound cut in income tax and doing away with Scottish
Enterprise.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP's campaign co-ordinator, said Mr Harding's move
underlined how "irrelevant" the Conservative party was. She added: "Keith
Harding has jumped ship from one fringe party to another. This tells us how
irrelevant the Tories have become when one of their own puts them on a par
with a party no-one has ever heard of."

Mr McLetchie, meanwhile, got on with unveiling the party's first campaign
poster which attacks the cost of the new Parliament building.

The Tories also released a document entitled "What a Waste" outlining the
£432m of public spending they claim has been wasted by the Labour/Liberal
coalition.