Articles By Rob Murray

Rob is an editor of Tory Hoose. He is the 2012 Council Candidate for Kilmarnock East & Hurlford ward and was the 2011 Holyrood Election Agent for Kilmarnock & Irvine Valley. Follow Rob on Twitter

Jim Murphy turns his back on Scotland again for own political future!

September 21, 2011   Rob Murray   1 Comment

 

In recent months the whisperings surrounding who would be the best candidate for the Scottish Labour Leader role, has always started with one name…Jim Murphy MP. As the weeks went on it became clear that Mr Murphy seen being Scottish Labour Leader as a backward step in his career choice, he has his eyes set on bigger roles down within the Labour party at Westminster.

 

Today, Jim Murphy may have given us a glimpse of his plans, when he went against the Labour Leader and said: “I’m not going to share a platform with him on the referendum.” The ‘him’ in this quote is David Cameron (the Prime Minister).

It appears Murphy is not willing to play ball in the National interest even though his party leader (Red Ed) suggested he would put aside political rivalries and do “the right thing”.

Why has Mr Murphy decided not to follow? Does he think he is bigger than the campaign to save Scotland being part of the UK? Or is he not that bothered about the campaign at all?

One thing is for sure he is no team player, as the only way we can win the vote is by putting our political differences aside and campaign together against the separatist agenda, El Presidente Salmond has for Scotland.

 

Our favourite Tory MP in Scotland (David Mundell) summarised today’s antics by stating:

“In the face of the threat from the SNP, everybody has got to pull together and put narrow political concerns behind them.

“I welcome the fact Ed Miliband is prepared to do that and I’m disappointed Jim has not. I’m sure on reflection he will realise that his remarks can only help Alex Salmond and not the Union.

“This is not about endorsing the Government or Government policies. It’s about Scotland in Britain and that has to take precedence over everything else.”

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Labour cut away the “dead wood”, is it our turn to follow?

September 20, 2011   Rob Murray   3 Comments

With the Labour party cutting away the “dead wood” for their Council election candidates next year in Glasgow is it about time the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party do the same?

For too long now both at Scottish Parliamentary elections and Council elections are new candidates turned away due to a ‘loyalty’ associations seem to have towards long standing members of the party.

Taking this approach has not helped the party locally or nationally, we have been seen as the out of touch out, of date party and on more occasions that not, I hear or read in the media the phrase “same old Tory policies and boring candidates”.
We need to move away from this and follow the Labour Party in Glasgow (I also hope in Ayrshire the Labour group will follow) and cut away the “dead wood”, a move which may help us in the up-coming Council elections.

One thing that will be interesting is whether the Labour Party allows Councillors to stand again if they have spent most of their time carrying out their second job and not the one they were elected to do!

Something sits uneasy with me, when we (and other parties) allow their candidates to carry out another full time job whilst they are meant to earning a full time wage at tax payer’s expense as Councillors! This must stop! Yes the Councillors wage is a dib in pay for most however once elected one should carry out the role to its full. Too many times on the door steps I have heard people say they never see their Councillor, or their Councillor very rarely is in the chambers, or their Councillor is very rarely at Community Council meetings. It’s simple; once you are elected you should be turning up to most Community Council meetings and be treating this job as your full time job, if you cannot fulfil the job then don’t apply!

I welcome the Labour Group on their decision in Glasgow; I only hope the Scottish Conservatives carry out this well needed clear out!

 

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Oh Vince do Cheer up!

September 20, 2011   Rob Murray   No comments

Vince Cable took the center stage yesterday at the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham, at what can only be described as an attempt to ‘rally the troops’ through a number of Tory bashing statements and little substance.One could argue that since his embarrassment with the papers, Vince Cable has been falling short of substance more often than normal. Should we be now be questioning his role on the cabinet and how useful he is being to the country rather than keeping the balance and Lib Dems on side!

During his rallying speech Cable (the Business Secretary) took swipes at a number of key Conservative policies and at fellow cabinet ministers including David Cameron, and Eric Pickles. Cable insisted that whilst the Conservatives on cabinet wanted to cut the 50p top rate of tax the Lib Dems were ‘reining in their coalition colleagues’.

On the 50p top rate of tax, surely a man of Cables knowledge on the economy and on business should know that this level of tax is not in the best interested of our country’s economy.

We need to be scrapping the 50p rate of tax thus encouraging those businessman and woman not only to be spending more for the country but also to invest more! The Lib Dem view of introducing a mansion tax should be completely out of the question, as this tax in the words of Eric Pickles, would be ‘a big mistake’ that would hit the middle classes.

One could  argue his hit back of ‘What solar system’ do they live on? Is merely a petty swipe at Pickles and his colleagues?

To finish off, I merely answer the question ‘What solar system’ do they live on?’ I am afraid it is the same one as you whilst there is a Lib Dem / Tory coalition. Don’t worry Vince once a few more months have passed you will start to agree that the 50p rate of tax needs to go! It’s the Conservative way of thinking!

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Hey…tough guy!

September 09, 2011   Rob Murray   1 Comment

 

 

Ian Grant is the Treasurer for the Kilmarnock & Loudoun Conservative Association and the 2012 Council candidate for Kilmarnock North. Ian is a long standing member of the Scottish Conservative party and has a keen interested in business and developing young people!

 

 

 

If Britain was threatened with a true life and death situation, really up against it like in 1940, what kind of fight would our young people put up, to protect 1000 years of freedom in this Country and more importantly, would they even “bovva”?

Is this really a lost generation of lazy X-box players, bloated on fast food and more pampered than a Chinese panda on loan to a western zoo?

Any Devotee to Sky News would be forgiven for thinking so.  I see it differently.

On a recent tour of Israel, I met many young people. Almost all of them had taken part in some form of National service.

All the kids I met had benefited from the experience.

At a time when many British 19 year Old’s  have their minds troubled with childish ideas and ideals, their Israeli equivalents are well along the journey to becoming self-disciplined adults.

I am convinced that our young people are every bit a match for and in most cases amongst the best that this planet can produce. They are smart (just look at the exam results every year for evidence) hold clear opinions and are interested in sport, computer savvy, quick thinking and determined.

It’s the older generation who are letting them down. Liberal ideas that sap competitiveness right from the start and seek to destroy leadership, replacing it with an anarchic version of “fairness” spell disorder and often disaster in those vital formative years.

Not every British youngster is suited for traditional National Service. The majority are though. If you can lob a brick or a bottle at a policeman or kick in a T.V. shop window, you can learn to march. If you are already way ahead of that stage, you may well have what it takes to make a great young leader.

We Conservatives should not be afraid to promote this point of view. This Country is not facing an external foe, the way we have in the past, but a real threat to our way of like does exist. Our young people need a new deal.

Many cry out for respect, but have no idea what it is to be respectable.  The older generation needs to accept and embrace our traditional values. Values that built Britain into one of the leading nations in the world. Values and freedoms that the young people in Libya and many other nations greatly admire and are today prepared to give their lives for.

We need to call for some form of National service to give the best chance to our new generation.

Give them the tools, they’ll finish the job.

Will you make a stand?

Are you tough enough to take on that challenge?

 

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The Public Sector and the Voluntary Sector

September 08, 2011   Rob Murray   No comments

In Scotland today we are hearing more of the third and voluntary sector. One might ask themselves what these sectors do? Where have they come from? and most importantly do we need them? All very important questions!

In short, modern society does need the third and voluntary sector, some of these organisations have been about from the early nineteen hundreds and they mostly work for the benefit of protecting and supporting young people and the most vulnerable in society!

Local governments and national governments this year faced difficult decisions in reducing their spending due to another round of the unsustainable council tax freeze! Those that were hit the hardest through the recent freeze were our most vulnerable through cuts to youth, addiction, literacy, elderly provisions.
With more cuts filtering down to local councils it important that we don’t forget how important it is to continue services for the most vulnerable.

One might ask them self how do we protect those who work with vulnerable people from cuts?…the answer is very simple, take projects run by councils and put them out to tender!  This in turn would reduce the pressures on local councils and their budgets.

At present councils provide services that are based around cost which in practice means a service with the view of one size fits all! If contracts had to be put out to tender then this would give the opportunity for the third and voluntary sector organisations to provide a service that is suited to the needs of service users.

So,the next step? There is at present a lot of support for this way of working in the field. The Conservative party has been at the forefront of this policy and have submitted plans for this to be enforced in England and Wales! In Scotland we have less hope! The Scottish Conservatives are pushing for this in parliament however other parties are not interested. Labour would not touch this policy due to fear of their TU pay masters at local council level kicking up a fuss! As for the SNP, they would not entertain this policy as they promise the world to the public sector and would not want to risk losing public sector support.

The only way to protect funding for those working with vulnerable people is by putting all contracts out for tender and allowing services to be run by those best suited to meet the needs of the service users.

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A Scottish Conservative Future or not? That is the question!

September 04, 2011   Rob Murray   No comments

With less than two months until d-day for the leadership campaign, an issue that is appearing to dominate the campaign in its early days is the future of our party. Now this issue is one that is bigger than any MSP, MP, member or activist. This is an issue that has divided the party for a number of years and one that may or may not increase are chances to gain a larger pool of conservative voters in Scotland.

Since the devastating result in 1997, where we lost all of our MP’s, the Scottish Conservatives have continued to hit a downward trend with regards to membership and election wins. What has caused this to happen?

Different members of the party and those external will give you very different responses, my idea is a simple…we have failed to engage with the voters, failed to explain to them what we stand for and who we are!

Looking at the party from the outside we are seen as upper class businessmen & women, as Lords or Ladys, land owners, lawyers and the higher classes within society. In truth we are as mixed as the rest of the parties in Scotland today. Yes we have those groups previously stated supporting us however we also have a large amount of people from various different backgrounds, religions, and races. We have students, lawyers, nurses, teachers, big issue sellers, social workers, youth workers, directors, accountants, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Asians, French, and British people supporting our party.

So what we need to start doing is listening to the experiences of our members and activities, stop thinking that our MSP’s and staff know best and begin to draw up a set of concrete policies and start effectively presenting them to the general public through a motivate leader that the average Joe on the street can relate to. Only by doing this will we start to win elections.

Regardless of who wins the leadership elections one thing is clear, our party as we know it will change and I hope that change will be a modern, fresh thinking, equal to all party that the people of Scotland will be able to install their trust onto again.

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£1m cash book for enterprising pupils in East Ayrshire.

September 04, 2011   Rob Murray   No comments

Business and Skills Enterprise Centers (BESC) across East Ayrshire are being given £1m cash boost in order to encourage entrepreneurial qualities and to get more schools leavers into work, or training.

With the likes of Sir Tom Hunter, one of Scotland’s richest men backing the initiative, it is important that East Ayrshire schools use this money to the full potential and the skills and experiences that top businessmen and woman can bring to the development of Ayrshire’s young people.

With the £1m coming from a one off grant from the council, schools will be expected to come up with their own ways of funding after the money has run out if they wish to sustain the learning and training programmes.

Other business leaders involved with this initiative include Mark Strudwick, chief executive of the Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust, Craig Stevenson from Norman Drummond of Drummond International and Columba 1400, Peter Hughes, chief executive of Scottish Engineering.

This is a great opportunity for the young people of East Ayrshire to engage in. Developing in the skills and knowledge required to be excellent entrepreneurs will enable our young people to be amongst the best business leaders in Scotland and hopefully in years to come the area will see benefits from this investment through the creation of local companies which in turn would bring jobs and wealth to East Ayrshire.

Both the SNP and Scottish Conservative Councillors back this proposal however once again the Labour Councillors have put up opposition to these proposals saying the money could be better spent. This is a typical response from Labour who seem to think businesses are not important to the future growth of our communities. Labour would happily see the money being spend on more public services which in turn would not create growth in our communities.

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Kilmarnock & Loudoun Conservatives selection their 2012 wining team!

September 02, 2011   Rob Murray   No comments

Members of the Kilmarnock & Loudoun Conservative Association turned out in large numbers to select their winning team for the 2012 Council Elections. Those selected include:

Ward 1: Annick – Cllr Rose-ann Cuninghame

Ward2: Kilmarnock North – Ian Grant

Ward 3: Kilmarnock West & Crosshouse – Cllr Tom Cook

Ward 4: Kilmarnock East & Hurlford – Rob Murray

Ward 5: Kilmarnock South – Jamie Sampson

Ward 6: Irvine Valley – John McFadzean

It was with great regret that Provost Stephanie Young (Conservative Cllr for Irvine Valley) indicated that she would be standing down at the next election after many years of dedicated service to the people of East Ayrshire and to the Scottish Conservative party. She will be dearly missed!

So information on all the candidates and up-dates on their campaigns please visit www.klconservatives.org.uk

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The relationship between the public sector and the voluntary sector.

August 29, 2011   Rob Murray   No comments

In Scotland today we are hearing more of the third and voluntary sector. One might ask them self what these sectors do? Where have they come from? And most importantly do we need them?
All very important questions!

In short, modern society does need the third and voluntary sector, some of these organisations have been about from the early nineteen hundreds and they mostly work for the benefit of protecting and supporting young people and the most vulnerable in society!

Local governments this year faced difficult decisions in reducing their spending due to another round of the never ending council tax freeze! Those that were hit the hardest through the recent freeze were our most vulnerable through cuts to youth, addiction, literacy, elderly provisions.

With more cuts filtering down to local councils it important that we don’t forget how important it is to continue services for the most vulnerable. One might ask, how do we protect those who work with vulnerable people from cuts?…the answer is very simple, take projects run by councils and put them out to tender! This in turn would reduce the pressures on local councils and their budgets.

At present councils provide services that are based around cost which in practice means a service with the view of one size fits all! If contracts had to be put out to tender then this would give the opportunity for the third and voluntary sector organisations to provide a service that is suited to the needs of service users.

So, the next step one might ask. There is at present a lot of support for this way of working in the field. The Conservative party has been at the forefront of this policy and have submitted plans for this to be enforced in England and Wales! In Scotland we have less hope! The Scottish Conservatives are pushing for this in parliament however other parties are not interested. Labour would not touch this policy due to fear of their TU pay masters at local council level kicking up a fuss! As for the SNP, they would not entertain this policy as they promise the world to the public sector and would not want to risk losing public sector support.

The only way to protect funding for those working with vulnerable people is by putting all contracts out for tender!

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