Efforts to create Lossie controversy for Danny continue

RAF Lossie was saved Leuchars is to close. Fingers are being pointed at Danny’s possible role in keeping the Moray base open. The Courier (the Tayside and Fife one) is quoting comments by one of Danny’s fellow LibDems Menzies Campbell and SNP MSP Rod Campbell:

The furore follows an unprecedented attack on Mr Alexander by his party colleague Sir Menzies Campbell, the North East Fife MP, over how the government's defence review was conducted.

The former Lib Dem leader implied Mr Alexander interfered in the basing review to "assist (his) political credibility" in his parliamentary seat.

"It's a remarkable coincidence that these decisions should have been thought to assist the political credibility of the chief secretary to the Treasury, or is it?" said Sir Menzies.

The Courier also quotes Rod Campbell an SNP MSP:

On Monday Mr Campbell suggested Mr Alexander could be in breach of the ministerial code, which states ministers must "avoid any conflict of interests" when dealing with issues which impact on their constituency.

"Fighting for your constituents is one thing, but to do it from within government is completely against the rules," he told The Courier. Courier article here.

From that it seems that Danny by being a Minister has one hand tied behind his back when it comes to going into battle for his constituency. This observer remembers Graham Marsden stating that we must make more use of Danny Alexander given his position in Government but given the rules of the game it looks like you can’t.

Anyway if there was anything that convinced the government to keep Lossie open instead of Leuchars it would have been the 7,000 plus demonstrators that marched through Lossie. The sight of so many ordinary folk marching alongside the entire front row Scottish Political establishment spooked Westminster. The folk around Leuchars just didn’t fight a sufficiently high-profile campaign in comparison. I doubt very much if anything will stick to Danny over this, all a bit of froth really. Whether he will ever be forgiven by Highland voters for being in government with the Tories is another matter however.