TORY headquarters has moved decisively to quash the ''civil war'' in
the Argyll and Bute constituency by closing the local Conservative
association and arranging for a new organisation to be set up.
Officials hope that the move will effectively end the damaging
long-running row over Mr Bill Hodgson being the Conservative candidate
in Argyll.
As the association which elected Mr Hodgson as prospective
parliamentary candidate no longer exists, then Mr Hodgson can do little
to fight the move.
Originally, the Argyll and Bute Conservative Association had voted by
a narrow margin that it had no confidence in Mr Hodgson as its candidate
and asked him to resign, which he refused to do. Then a petition by more
than 200 members supporting him asked for an extraordinatry meeting of
the association to give him fresh backing.
Mr Adrian Shinwell, vice-president of the Scottish Conservative and
Unionist Association, was sent to Argyll to try to bring the warring
factions together, but he reported that the two sides were too
entrenched for a compromise to be reached.
Eventually, Scua took the decision that disaffiliating the entire
Argyll association was a quicker and cleaner method than allowing local
officials to continue squabbling over whether Mr Hodgson should be
removed. One of the first moves of a new association will be to choose a
candidate.
Mr Michael Hirst, president of Scua, said yesterday that the decision
to disaffiliate had been made with considerable reluctance but in the
firm belief that it was the only practicable way to resolve the serious
and public disagreements in the constituency -- one of Britain's
largest, stretching from Oban to Campbeltown, taking in Dunoon and
Lochgilphead.
''Scua was faced with an intolerable situation of what amounted to
near civil war in Argyll and Bute,'' he said yesterday.
''Efforts have been made over the months to resolve things in a
peaceful and principled way, but I regret that they have not been
successful.''
Technically, Mr Hodgson, who gave up his farm and wine business in the
south of Scotland to move full-time to Campbeltown to fight the
election, can seek to become the candidate of the new association, but
the odds are not in his favour. He said yesterday that he was a bit
shattered at the early Christmas present the Conservative Party had sent
him.
It was too early to say what his next move would be, but he is
privately conceding that his hopes of remaining as candidate had been
scuppered. He believes he has been led up the garden path in moving to
the constituency and that headquarters in Edinburgh had treated him
shamefully.
Doubts about Mr Hodgson's candidature emerged when he had to enter
hospital for a heart by-pass operation. Some local officials questioned
whether he would be fit enough to remain as candidate.
Mr Hodgson, however, saw this as a smokescreen, knowing that his
zestful, but sometimes abrasive, style, which meant he had little time
for people he thought were not pulling their weight, had led to him
making enemies among certain sections of the constituency.
Local councillor, Mr Noel Faccenda, organising secretary of the
association, who was regarded as a main opponent of Mr Hodgson, said
yesterday that the move to disaffiliate the association was not entirely
unexpected. He said it was too early to say whether he would be seeking
a position in the new organisation.
Mr Archie McCallum, constituency chairman, who had tried and failed to
heal the rift, said the step was the only one that could sort out the
problems locally.
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