Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A Letter to the Press and Journal

The Editor
Press and Journal
Lang Stracht
Mastrick
Aberdeen AB15 6DF

17 December 2007

Sir,

I am astounded at the idiocy being shown by Scottish Lib Dem Leader, Nicol Stephen MSP, over the proposed Trump development.

This is a project which enjoys overwhelming public support, and which has the potential to bring much good to the North East. It is a project on which Nicol Stephen himself has said he would like to see progress. Why, then, apart from as a desperate bid to seem relevant and score cheap points off the SNP government, is he now calling for an enquiry which would delay the project planning process, perhaps fatally?

It’s been clear since May that senior Lib Dem noses in Edinburgh have been put out of joint following their return to the backbenches. However, with his silly anti-SNP posturing, Stephen is playing fast and loose with the future prosperity of the North East. Lib Dem voters must be wondering just how their party has managed to fall so far from grace and relevance in such a short space of time.

Stephen accused First Minister Alex Salmond of acting with ‘cleverness’ at Holyrood last week. On recent evidence, that’s not a tag voters will be attaching to the Scottish Lib Dem leader any time soon.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Thomson
SNP Westminster Candidate
Gordon Parliamentary Constituency

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed at Stephen's nerve. Meanwhile, check out this rather unlikely news:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/19/dailyexpress.pressandpublishing

Richard Thomson said...

My Dad has read the Express for years and frankly, I never thought I'd live to see the day they said anything remotely positive about independence. I'm still in shock from the Sunday Express urging people to vote SNP in May.

Mind you, we've been here before. The Mirror had a flirtation with the SNP for about 6 months a few years ago before reverting to type. I hope the Express has a bit more staying power!

Anonymous said...

What is your view of the environmental aspect of this debate?

Richard Thomson said...

I understand that 40% of the SSSI will be taken over by the development if it goes ahead. While that's regrettable, it still means that as things stand, 60% will not. While it's inevitable that there will be some impact on the remaining dunes, we're still only talking about a relatively small section of a 20-mile dune system which extends from the Bridge of Don up past the mouth of the Ythan.

There's no incentive for the developers, should this end up going ahead, to do anything further to affect the natural environment, given that you imagine this will be one of the main attractions of what's being proposed.

Overall, my views on the project aren't too distant from what this writer has to say on the matter:

http://www.leopardmag.co.uk/feats/165/the-menie-dunes-dilemma

Artful said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Richard Thomson said...

It's pitiful, isn't it?

What you up to these days anyway, Noman?