If we don’t get a Sainsbury’s will Nairn voters punish the SNP?

If the Nairnshire is correct (they understand that the delay in a decision may imply refusal) and the nightmare scenario comes true and Nairn were to abandoned totally to the Co-op, will voters punish the Scottish Government ruling party at the General election? We have always thought of Nairn as quite an SNP stronghold although the County was at one time represented by two Conservative councillors on the old Highland Region Council. Times have changed however, and many, many Nairn votes have stacked up behind Fergus Ewing over the years since the return of the Scottish Parliament.

Our shopping situation in town is dire and can be quite an emotive subject, we are literally forced to travel for a choice of food, in fact a trip to Forres or Inverness can sometimes work out cheaper with the savings in the shopping basket. So it is a real issue that affects all of us, especially those Nairnites that travel to work in supermarkets elsewhere, they have the skills that could be transferred instantly to a new Sainsbury’s store. The Reporter’s assessment lies on the desk of Minister Stuart Stevenson and many are perplexed at the delay in his decision. Is he looking for a water-tight way of rejecting, perhaps, a decision against the supermarket or simply looking for a suitable day to bury bad news?

The Gurn predicts that if this supermarket is rejected the majority of Nairnites will consider it the scandal of the millennium and will react angrily. In the shape of the ruling party in Scotland, the SNP, they would have a target firmly in their sights for the General Election that will come, at the latest, by May of 2010. Of course the issue is quite complex and the Reporter, if she came down against the development, would perhaps have quite a few reasons for telling us why but displeasure would manifest itself against the bearer of bad news.

A moment too to examine the role of the Co-op, who had the cheek to put up a line of suits at the inquiry to do their best to deny Nairnites the choice that competition coming to Nairn would provide, they are dragging their feet about redeveloping the town centre site until the Sainsbury’s decision. Does this make any sense? We can see how Forres survives with three supermarkets and how Huntly, a town half the size of Nairn, has an ASDA and a Tescos. Surely the Co-op’s stance is absurd because even if Sainsbury’s are refused a new supermarket will one day come to Nairn. Why should they be allowed to dictate that they will only build if they have no competition? Are we to become retail vassals of the ‘caring, sharing, Co-op’?

The will of the people cannot be refused for ever. Sainsbury’s or another company could reapply perhaps and that site or another, once the new Highland Development plan goes through, would see the metal framework of a competitor going up sooner rather than later.

Fingers crossed that we will get a Sainbury’s however, and that a positive decision is announced before the end of 2009. Another take on the situation is available on Nairn's latest Internet facilty.