Pre-Speech ponderings

So the bbc is reporting that Annabel Goldie is going to be talking about how to tackle child  neglect in her  conference speech today.

What the bbc report on it says sounds interesting, and hardly objectionable,but lets wait and  see what happens  when she gets up to speak.

So what can she really do to make anything happen? Well I have rather thought that the Scottish Tories have never really gotten the idea of how to respond to PR and its results in Scotland. This isnt THAT surprising, for the most part the party, even if it have benefited from the system, is not totally comfortable with it, and rightly so. I think this for two reasons, most obviously that as many seem to think that watch closely, the Parliamentary Tory party at Holyrood dontreally seem to know how to make a  big impact (the results of dealing with Salmond et al remain tobe seen) and secondly because  several years ago, when helping out as an activist in Stirling, I got exactly NO feel that there was any concerted effort by the party to campaign on a national level for the second preference votes.

Now I wont get into a rant about  electoral tactics (I shall save that till theres another election in the off) but i do have an idea of how to make a go of this child  neglect thing.

So theres a problam that needs to be dealt with. No argument there.

The Tories are very much a minority party so would need support to impliment it.

The SNP are a  minority party so could not out right stop a tory proposal and need support from other  parties to maintain their position.

So a Tory plan should have an eye to what other groups within the parliament would support. So who.

Well IHATE to say this, but I think the Lib Dems. For they are in pretty much exactly the same position as the Tories are.

If you can get a deal that the Lib Dems support (and i say deal not proposal, we would have to give the LD's something too,probably reciprocal support on something dear to them) and possibly the green MSP's and Margo MacDonald, then you have a strong body in parliament to advocate any proposal.

The  next step would be to turn to Salmond et al and make it clear that you can make his life very difficult if he doesnt support it. As it is Labour is in almost total opposition to the SNP in Holyrood,  and thats what the  smaller parties have toplay against. Make the SNP realise that you can let them do much of what they want, they are the biggest party they can govern theres no getting away from that.

But this kind of issue, child neglect, is something that will probably have to be dealt with by some sense legislativly, and thats where the Smaller parties can make real political capital.

What the small parties have to do is pick their issues, and  focus on them, effectivly surrender certain issues to the SNP, but make it clear that they will fight tooth and nail on those issues that they can build an election campaign on essentially.

Its not much of aplan for the  next election, but the tories are in a position where much can be made of this parliament to fuel the engines of the next campaign. It's a start.