Of all of the top Tories, William Hague is the most interesting, arguably also the most able.

Hague is a man who didn’t peak too soon as much as seek and find promotion too soon. It is rare to see a former party leader agree to come back to the front bench under a new leader and do so with a grace and a command of his brief which make him seem a man of the future rather than a relic.

The Conservative Shadow Home Secretary helicoptered in to Argyll & Bute – to Helensburgh – as part of a rotorised tour of all eleven of the Conservatives’ Scottish target seats.

He was accompanied by the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Annabel Goldie and was met at Helensburgh by the party’s candidate for this constituency, Gary Mulvaney.

The Conservative candidate  for the adjoining constituency, Martyn McIntyre was there too, wryly commenting that his Labour rival for the  West Dunbartonshire seat, replacing Labour veteran John McFall, was a year behind him at school and a staff colleague at the Dumbuck Hotel in Dumbarton.

Hague looked superclean pale – poached and cooled – his sharp mind and equally keen mischief visible in occasional flashes.

Faslane

A series of questions put to him on his party’s position on the replacement of the submarine-delivered Trident nuclear missile system made it clear just how important the nearby UK submarine base at Faslane is to how Helensburgh sees its own survival.

The answer, by the way, is that the Conservatives are ‘broadly supportive of Trident but will make a decision based on best value for money.

England

We were interested in the Conservative proposals to reduce the number of Westminster MPs, to which Mr Hague has recently committed in public.

Talking of indefensible disparities between some constituency sizes, each returning an MP, he says that there will be a 10% overall reduction in MPs.

However, we’re not sure that this will do anything except exacerbate the current discrimination against England in the constitutionally illogical position in which the UK has operated since devolution.

England, the most heavily populated of the four home countries of the United Kingdom and the possessor of the greatest number of businesses, is the largest contributor to the national exchequer.

It experiences social tensions in immigration, with imperfect cultural integration an enduring feature.

It has heavy resource needs and suffers from overcrowding, congested roads and a public transport system that is struggling to measure up to the 21st century.

Despite all of this, the undevolved England, of all four home countries, is the only one with absolutely no say over its own circumstances.

This loose end – of a dimension that could hang a nation – is a typical frayed yarn of Blairite pragmatism. You do the populist bits with an assumed fast return on political investment; and you leave the really difficult elements alone in the hope that no one will notice or someone else will sort it out – whenever.

Only phlegmatic England would accept such treatment. The choleric celts simply would not tolerate it.

A contributing factor to this situation is the subconscious and uninterrogated assumption that, with England perceived as the ‘home’ country, the Westminster parliament is synonymous with England’s parliament. This is, of course, a nonsense.

A reduction of the number of MPs, including a reduction of the number of MPs representing English constituencies, will disadvantage England even further.

Although Mr Hague’s response to the question we put on this matter was lively and engaged, we are not sure that he grasped its essential nature.

This situation of England within the UK is a political hand grenade with the pin half-pulled – and it is ripe for exploitation by the BNP. It leaves the greatest number of UK citizens, by far, effectively disenfranchised, rendered politically invisible.

We are living in an incomplete devolution and with a dangerously asymmetric system of government. This is the first of the necessary constitutional reforms the UK needs to be addressed.

Team Mulvaney

What was interesting here was the youth-driven energy. Not only were the Mulvaney cheerleaders well in evidence, bringing fun and approachability to a political campaign (and they’ll be on the open-top bus in Oban on Saturday) but they are articulate about their own needs.

These echo the cries of Argyll’s youth at large – not enough to do, nowhere to go, old fashioned shops, a culture out of touch with the young.

And they’re right – although as Argyll’s largest town by a very long way (Helensburgh has around 30% of the entire population of Argyll), they are better off than their peers elsewhere. There are more young people around and at least there are places to dance, even if fewer and less frequently active than they would like.

Political feedback – the young Tory voter

A well-informed young man, who offered himself as a volunteer to Team Mulvaney a year ago and is now a student at Edinburgh University, talks about the fact that it is still uncool to be young and a Tory.

So why is he?

Because he is seriously hacked off with the track record of UK politics – the grabbing self-interest, the lies, the deceit, an administration long past its go-by date  and grasping at any and every passing gimmick to try to stay in power.

He sees David Cameron as someone who has managed to unite the Conservative Party where his personal previous interest, Michael Howard, could not.

Political feedback – Scottish independence

A businesswoman – and one of several people to say this to us in Helensburgh yesterday, confided that she may be a Tory – a reasoned choice she has made for herself, but, being a proud Scot, she is strongly attracted to the notion of independence.

While this is – and remains – good news for the SNP, the ‘but’ is a big one. She – with the others – doesn’t see how it can be done, doesn’t see that Scotland can make it on its own. So she’s holding on to nurse.

This has been our own argument about the Independence Referendum strategy. People will not commit to the vehicle in advance of seeing that there is an engine under the bonnet and that it is fit for purpose.

Political feedback – roots of Liberal Democrat support

This was much in evidence, from bystanders who said they were ‘Liberal’ – not Lib Dem and always the ‘senior service’.

Lib Dem support among the young is significant  – the party’s opposition in Scotland to tuition fees still resonates to the party’s favour as, powerfully, does it’s unequivocal opposition to the war in Iraq.

The Lib Dems are the only one of the three major UK-wide parties to have utterly clean hands on Iraq. Labour are irretrievably mired in it, having led us into it. The Conservatives had Ian Duncan Smith as leader at the time, a former army man who thoughtlessly danced his way into Blair’s camp, seeing the war as an opportunity to show himself a man of action.

We can only hope that the magnitude of the Iraq disaster has dispatched the very British assumption that, in time of threat, party politics is forgotten. This is a fine and necessary principle but the duping of Duncan Smith has made politicians stop to think about – and question – the credibillty of the threat that is advanced.

Who will forget the irresponsible political opportunism of Blunkett sending tanks to Heathrow when the party needed to bring the country to heel behind the ‘war on terror’ that has been the accelerator of terrorism?

However, while the ‘grey’ Liberal vote will make it to the booths on 6th May, the youth corps are less motivated to see their looser support through to action.

And Argyll?

In the numbers game, the Helensburgh vote will be key to whatever decision Argyll makes on 6th May.

This does not necessarily advantage Mulvaney – the grass being perpetually greener,  everyone can find themselves at a discount in their home place.

It s not coincidental that Alan Reid, the Lib Dem sitting MP for Argyll & Bute, has his second home at Cardross, on the outskirts of Helensburgh.

And Mike Mackenzie, the SNP candidate has visited the town assiduously and will be back there this Saturday.

Argyll is all to play for, in our view, between Alan Reid, who is there to be unseated; Gary Mulvaney, representing the Scottish Conservatives who came second with Jamie McGrigor in 2005; and Mike Mackenzie, new representative of the resurgent SNP, coming from fourth in the constituency in 2005.

It is hard to see David Graham, for Labour, making much of an impact. We met him at the count for the Euro elections last year and, an honest and straightforward man, he embodied the best of the Labour movement. But his party has not seen the best of Labour for at least 13 years and has left the unfortunate Graham to try to shake off a legacy of political corruption and Stalinist bullying that is only his by association.

The late advent of the Scottish Greens, with the energetic and focused Elaine Morrison bounding on to the scene, may shake up part of the picture. The Greens carry the mood of the moment and one that speaks powerfully to Argyll. Morrison’s arrival is too late to carry the day but she may take votes from both the Lib Dem’s and the SNP and she will lay down a strong marker for next time – if there is a next time.

Argyll is fortunate in having very real choices to make between a series of candidates, each of whom also has, at a personal level, a great deal to commend them.

There’s no one to dislike – except in the deep tribal affiliation where all that can be seen is ‘the enemy’ – a stance we need to ditch as soon as possible.

Each of our candidates is to like. And, importantly, each of our candidates is from Argyll – no parachutists, carpetbaggers or party HQ favourites required.

David Graham lives in Dunooon, Mike Mackenzie on Easdale Island, Elaine Morrison on Loch Fyneside, Gary Mulvaney in Helensburgh and Alan Reid in Dunoon and Cardross.

All of this leaves the decision on how to vote on 6th May to be taken for the right reasons – on the issues that Westminster alone can deal with and that affect Scotland and Argyll.

We will be publishing an article on this over the coming weekend.

The 1st, 2nd, 4th and last photographs accompanying this article are by copyright holder, Paul Hadfield; the others are by For Argyll.

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