Strange mutterings from the Border Tories

Chris Walker the Tory candidate for Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk has resigned.

His press excuses so far have ranged from the flimsy, to an interesting kick at the Tories in the Galloway News, "I just couldn't make the commitment and felt I had no other choice other than to resign. It seems such a shame after nearly two years hard work in the Borders that the party seemed unable to support a businessman. I had honestly thought that was what the Conservatives wanted."

Now that sounds like a man distancing himself from his party. Rumours abound that he was very unpopular with the local constituency members, who favour local Tory MSP John Lamont as their candidate.



Living and working in Galloway and campaigning in B, R & S was a big ask for anyone, however given the Tories good show across the Border seats in the recent Euros, one might have expected Walker to grin and bare it.

Although the accusations of arrogance and a rather imperialistic outlook may fall on deaf ears, he certainly didn't win many friends when he thought having Robert Burns 'The Selkirk Grace' affixed to a public urinal in his hotel bar was a jolly wheeze.

One has to admire the Tories for the alacrity to which they took down his website http://www.chriswalker2win.com/ and had all traffic directed to their own website, where in an almost Stalinist purge, all traces of Walker have vanished.

The Tories see themselves as having a blue barrier across the border. They are up in D&G despite the sheer ineptitude of Peter Duncan. Russell Brown, the sitting Labour MP, has done nothing in his 12 year parliamentary career other than diligently fill in his expenses form and vote slavishly with the Labour front bench. Labour finished a distant third at the Euros behind the Tories and the SNP. In essence the seat is a two horse race between the SNP candidate, Andrew Wood and Peter Duncan. If ever there was a case of "A vote for Labour, is a vote for the Tories", then this is it.

In the mouthful that is Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweedsdale (DCT), David Mundell the shadow secretary for the state of Scotland, does nothing other than prance around having his photograph taken, oddly enough the photo used in his weekly column hasn't changed in 12 years, truly he is a Wildean character....He is still universally loathed by the parties Scottish hierarchy for his infamous leaked email about the poor quality of his fellow MSP's. His opposition here is the perrenial Labour hopeful Claudia Beamish, the poor woman is Lord Beamish's daughter and has the crystal clear tones of a Joyce Grenfell, which has time and time been rebuffed by the trad Labour voters. The Lib Dem's in an attempt to continue a family place at the trough have Lord David Steel's daughter,Catriona Bhatia as their candidate, universally disliked as a local councillor who has messed up Borders Council schools programme, she is not expected to do as well as her old man did in the day. Aileen Orr is the SNP candidate, fermers wife, local and a co-chair of the Scottish Independence Convention, she may just surprise Mr Mundell.

These two SNP candidates in D&G and DCT I reckon are the best chance of stopping this Blue Riband across the Border. The more fractious the fall out from Walkers resignation, among the Tories and the threat of possible candidate Lamont to Mundell as leading Tory light, might make this an interesting seat. Lib Dem Michael Moore is the almost anonymous B,R & S incumbent, with the Tories not too far away...