THE radical idea of a breakaway Scottish Conservative Party setting its own local agenda and having the loosest possible links with London seemed dead and buried by the end of yesterday's conference.
Mr David McLetchie, the president of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association - the voluntary wing of the party - and Scottish party chairman Annabel Goldie went out of their way to attack and to rubbish such a move. In the event, the disillusioned proponents of the plan did not attend the conference sessions.
In the middle of the firing line from the hierarchy was Scottish Tory reform group chairman Arthur Bell, who had dared to suggest German money could be used to research the way in which a devolved party operated and its links with the centre.
In his opening address to the conference, Mr McLetchie said: ''Those who call for a breakaway or independent Scottish Conservative Party betray our core belief, shared by the vast majority of Scots, that we are much the stronger for being part of the United Kingdom rather than as a marginalised, independent rump. We need a partnership, not a divorce.''
Earlier, he had warned that the kind of dissent and rebellious independence shown rec-ently by some members of the STRG would not be tolerated.
''I have no time for name calling or back biting, the self interested or the self serving or for those who want to run a party within a party. To those who wish to engage in such childish antics, my message is grow up, get in line, or get out. For we have important work to do.'' Scottish Party chairman, Annabel Goldie, emphasised in her address that she would not wish to be a member of any breakaway group and thought it unwise to sever the umbilical cord with colleagues down south.
Mr Bell had left Perth before the conference began yesterday morning. Councillor Brian Meek, who had strongly advocated an autonomous Scottish party with very loose links to Westminster, had already declared in print his decision not to attend the conference.
Veteran Glasgow councillor John Young, another member of the STRG who has long advocated the need for distinctively Scottish policies, had left Perth not to return after attending a reform group fringe meeting.
Councillor Meek had warned in advance of a stitch-up at the conference. With regard to organisation and structure, the leadership had already in fact drawn up secret plans to put to the conference at the end of the debate. A special review commission is to be set up to decide on what reforms are needed chaired by Lord Strathclyde, Opposition Chief Whip in the Lords. Delegates backed this move by a show of hands.
Former party chairman Lord Sanderson, who will be one of the 12-strong group, said afterwards that they faced ''a formidable task'' and he added ''my concern is that decisions made in haste are greeted with anger later on''.
Lord Sanderson said he was in favour of more distinctly Scottish policies and the party was going to have to address the arrival of a Scottish parliament. He favoured the principle of one person one vote for electing party leaders but a key question would be how this could best be put into practice.
No clear consensus emerged from the forum on structure and organisation. There was strong support for more democracy and the chance for the membership to elect office bearers. But clearly some of the grassroots workers are also anxious about any proposals which might centralise the party structure and remove their independence for example to choose parliamentary candidates.
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