Sir,
From all the huffing and puffing from the nationalist correspondents, the SNP seems to have reached a pretty similar conclusion about the role of party politics in local elections, in island circumstances. Last time they fielded fifteen candidates and expected to run the Comhairle. The electorate rejected that approach and the local SNP’s chief letter writer attracted a resounding 4% of the vote.
This time they are fielding nine candidates and have thus abandoned the prospect of being anything other than an opposition group, sniping at everything the Comhairle tries to achieve.
That is not the Labour approach and we have taken the collective view that the Western
Isles will be best served by councillors who take a generally like-
In reaching that view, we have simply recognised that the attempt by both ourselves and the SNP to introduce party politics into local elections, has not been welcomed by the electorate and has become a negative factor in the workings of the Comhairle. Sometimes it is not a bad idea to listen and learn.
Christine Macsween
(Secretary of the Western Isles Constituency Labour Party)
8b Shulishader
Isle of Lewis
Letter: Party politics “negative factor” in comhairle
11 April 2017