THE Scottish Branch office of the Conservative Party often try to paint themselves a sort-of Tory-lite – Ross Thomson has shown exactly why that isn't the case.
Political opponents have joined in the chorus of criticism after a blog post by the Tory MP bemoaned the party dumping "the great legacy of Thatcher".
The post, titled Free enterprise, liberty and individualism, was written to mark him joining the advisory board of Conservatives for Liberty.
Reflecting on the snap election results in 2017, he says: "The key issue for me was that the manifesto offered to the electorate a rejection of laissez-faire capitalism; a rejection of free markets; a rejection of individualism; and a rejection of Thatcherism. Fundamentally, it set us on a course out of step with the aspirations of the public.
"In dumping the great legacy of Thatcher and our core values that individuals know better than the state and that free enterprise and capitalism are inherently good, the manifesto time travelled all the way back to the interventionist traditions of the 1950s. That’s not the party that I joined."
Most Tories would probably leap at the chance to "travel all the way back" to the 1950s.
He turns his attention to the SNP too: "Like nationalists everywhere, they sacrifice individual freedoms – our freedoms – on the altar of their nationalist agenda."
Speaking to the Press and Journal, SNP MP Kirsty Blackman said: “This new far right Tory group – hankering back to the days of Mr Thomson’s heroine Margaret Thatcher – will be seen for what is it: a small fringe group of xenophobes and dinosaurs.
“It’s clear Ross Thomson is staggeringly out of step. His rejection of a statement abhorring social division and inequality is nothing short of shocking.”
The LibDem's Alistair Carmichael joined in too: "Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael, Lib Dem, said Mr Thomson would lead his party to another electoral extinction.
He adaded: “You have to feel a little bit sorry for Ruth Davidson who has spent years trying to be the acceptable face of cuddly Scottish conservatism.
“The legacy of Margaret Thatcher was a toxic Tory party in Scotland which was eventually wiped out completely.
“If Ross Thompson wants to return to that, he is going the right way about it.”
Well, there you have it folks. Vote Ross Thomson and the Scottish Tories, and you get representatives trying to bring us back to the days of Thatcher.
Thomson has given us another glimpse at the true face of the Tory party in Scotland – the one they try so often to conceal.
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