That this House is deeply concerned at the dumping by Stirling Conservatives of Councillor Frank Saunders, the Leader of the Conservative Group on Central Regional Council, who has been deselected as candidate for the Viewforth division because of his disagreement with the Government's plans to butcher Scottish local government and in particular its plans to break up Central Region; notes that Colonel Saunders has been a member of the Conservative party for 52 years and a councillor for over 30 years and that his fellow Conservative councillor Susan Dukes said in the Stirling Observer 'Councillor Saunders is an honourable man and an experienced councillor who believes that the interests of the people must come first'; notes the comment of yet another Conservative colleague, Councillor Janice McNicol, 'We felt the Conservatives were missing out on the opportunity to show that they were above that awful word gerrymandering - To produce particles of blue across Scotland was not the way to go about the forming of local government' - and that she the thought Conservatives were above that; and conclude that the deselection of people such as Councillor Saunders speaks eloquently of the lack of free speech in today's Conservative Party and that Edinburgh District Conservative councillor Brian Meek is right to pose the question in regard to the Saunder's case, 'Are we supposed to be speaking puppets?'.

That this House is deeply concerned at the dumping by Stirling Conservatives of Councillor Frank Saunders, the Leader of the Conservative Group on Central Regional Council, who has been deselected as candidate for the Viewforth division because of his disagreement with the Government's plans to butcher Scottish local government and...