Musings from the Merse
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Putting an Orr in?
This letter in today's electronic Berwickshire indicates a bit of disarray in the nationalist ranks?
SIR, - I read in last week’s issue with some degree of surprise that Aileen Orr is being quoted in your newspaper as Westminster Candidate and she is quoted as speaking for the Borders regarding independence.
While I am delighted that the Petition on Independence is getting some column inches in your first class newspaper I am disappointed that Ms Orr is once again being presented by the Tweeddale Press as some kind of local candidate for the SNP in Berwickshire.
This is extremely misleading for the electorate and quite insulting to our own Westminster candidate, Paul Wheelhouse who has been working across the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk County Constituency since he was appointed last October.
Ms Orr may well farm with her husband at Hutton but that does not give her the right to comment on matters relating to this constituency without that comment coming through myself or our candidate.
She is a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for an area which stretches from Clydesdale on the west coast down to Dumfriesshire and the Solway coast then up to West Peeblesshire. That, I am sure you will agree, is a bit further west than even the Berwickshire News can claim as its circulation area.
All press releases regarding the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirkshire Constituency are issued from either myself for Paul Wheelhouse and I would ask that you respect that position check with one of us before publishing items purporting to represent the SNP in this area.
KENNETH GUNN,
Chairman, Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk County Constituency SNP Association.
Might it not have been simpler to ask Mrs O to button it locally rather than air party disagreements in the medja? And how is it Mrs O's fault if the local press has misunderstood her position?
Whilst wishing the Hutton Farmer all the best in the Westminster hustings may Huttonian respectfully suggest that door to door canvassing is not best done by sitting in car and sending the younger members of the family to stuff the letter boxes and knock the knockers. It did not work around here and I doubt if it will have a warmer response a 'bit further west'
Verb Sap as they used to say in Pompeii
This letter in today's electronic Berwickshire indicates a bit of disarray in the nationalist ranks?
SIR, - I read in last week’s issue with some degree of surprise that Aileen Orr is being quoted in your newspaper as Westminster Candidate and she is quoted as speaking for the Borders regarding independence.
While I am delighted that the Petition on Independence is getting some column inches in your first class newspaper I am disappointed that Ms Orr is once again being presented by the Tweeddale Press as some kind of local candidate for the SNP in Berwickshire.
This is extremely misleading for the electorate and quite insulting to our own Westminster candidate, Paul Wheelhouse who has been working across the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk County Constituency since he was appointed last October.
Ms Orr may well farm with her husband at Hutton but that does not give her the right to comment on matters relating to this constituency without that comment coming through myself or our candidate.
She is a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for an area which stretches from Clydesdale on the west coast down to Dumfriesshire and the Solway coast then up to West Peeblesshire. That, I am sure you will agree, is a bit further west than even the Berwickshire News can claim as its circulation area.
All press releases regarding the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirkshire Constituency are issued from either myself for Paul Wheelhouse and I would ask that you respect that position check with one of us before publishing items purporting to represent the SNP in this area.
KENNETH GUNN,
Chairman, Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk County Constituency SNP Association.
Might it not have been simpler to ask Mrs O to button it locally rather than air party disagreements in the medja? And how is it Mrs O's fault if the local press has misunderstood her position?
Whilst wishing the Hutton Farmer all the best in the Westminster hustings may Huttonian respectfully suggest that door to door canvassing is not best done by sitting in car and sending the younger members of the family to stuff the letter boxes and knock the knockers. It did not work around here and I doubt if it will have a warmer response a 'bit further west'
Verb Sap as they used to say in Pompeii
Labels: General Election, Mrs O, SNP
Comments:
As secretary of the Scottish Independence Convention an all party/non party pro independence organisation, I am astonished that Mr Gunn did not consider contacting Aileen Orr who was authorised by us as our press secretary to issue the published press release, which was sent to all local and national newspapers, since OUR constituency covers the whole of Scotland. It was in this capacity that she did so, and the fact that the paper understandably used her more familiar role as an SNP Westminster candidate for an adjoining constituency is not her fault, if fault there is. It seems to me that Mr Gunn has simply made rather a fool of himself in the process.Check out our web site at http//:scottishindependenceconvention.com
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