Monday, August 12, 2013

David McLetchie

I'm absolutely stunned to discover that David McLetchie has died at such a tragically young age. I think the greatest compliment I can pay him is that he was just about the only senior Scottish Tory you could listen to in the 1990s without knowing instantly which party he belonged to - he came across as remarkably normal, and you could easily have imagined him in any of the main parties.

From memory, he also championed a number of surprisingly progressive causes during his tenure as leader, such as the abolition of tuition fees and free personal care for the elderly.

5 comments:

  1. Sad news. 61 years old is far too young to die.

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  2. I was very sad to read of David's death. I thought him one of the decent Tory MSP's who helped establish Holyrood. I do hope that his successor Cameron Buchanan is in the same mold as David.

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  3. He also voted through the tram with the express motive of denying the SNP funds to spend on the A9. He is condemned by his own words and was responsible for the deaths of innocents. Just because he's now a dead arse doesn't make him less of one.

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  4. I don't think anyone was trying to say that man was perfect, Anon.

    Just that he was by and large a decent bloke doing what he thought was right.

    His support for the trams was shared by every party except the SNP and has come back to bite them on the bum, given the farce that the trams have turned out to be.

    I'm certainly not, and from my knowledge of Marcia and James, neither are they, trying to make him into a paragon of virtue.

    I'm sure too, that we all remember that he resigned as party leader, because of misuse of government funds.

    Nonetheless, the man was well liked and largely decent, and was responsible in part for the co-operation (under Annabel Goldie) between the Tories and the SNP that resulted in a very successful minority administration for the SNP, where the Tories actually acted like a serious mature political party, whilst Labour went out of their way to be obstructive.

    61, in any case, is a dreadfully young age to die, no matter what your politics are.

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  5. David McLetchie was a Scottish Tory who fought the good fight for the union. He was also a gentleman, a wit and a very able politician. He would have been a real asset to an independent Scottish Parliament. My sincere condolences to his family and many friends.

    P.S. To choose to remain anonymous while at the same time describing someone as an "arse" says a lot about the accuser. Old Scottish saying 'It takes an arse to know an arse!'

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