Commenting on yesterday’s vote in the Scottish Parliament where Labour, Lib Dem and Green MSPs combined to vote down the Scottish Government’s budget, Highlands & Islands Conservative MSP Jamie McGrigor has said: ‘The public in the Highlands and Islands will rightly be very angry with and frustrated at those parties that voted against the Scottish budget.

‘At a time of economic recession, MSPs should have been able to act constructively – as the Scottish Conservatives did- and negotiate to allow the budget to be passed and therefore money passed to our public services timeously. (Editor: now here’s a word rarely seen and a fun addition to the vocabulary: means ‘in good time’)

‘This is an extremely serious situation and, as my leader Annabel Goldie said, Labour’s and the Lib Dems’ actions are grossly irresponsible and frankly pathetic- it is political posturing of the worst kind which could cost Scotland £1.8 billion and will only increase uncertainty during Labour’s recession.

‘As Communities Spokesman myself, I had backed strongly our policy to spend £60 million on the regeneration of town centres; that would have been very valuable to places like Oban, Campbeltown, Dunoon, Rothesay in  my native Argyll and scores of other towns across my region of the Highlands & Islands’.

Mr McGrigor’s comments are among many expressions of outrage sent to for Argyll from all corners.

His colleague in local government, Councilor Gary Mulvaney, Conservative Group Leader on Argyll & Bute council and parliamentary candidate said: ‘Labour and the Liberal Democrats have delivered a massive tax bombshell to local government finance.

‘By voting the budget down, they have saddled Scottish councils with a cut of £660m. This means a £359 increase on Band D Council Tax average for those in Argyll & Bute, leading to an annual Band D record high of £1537.

‘All this comes on top of the 60% increase in Council Tax that we had to cope with when the Lib Dem’s and Labour were running Scotland, and one year after progress was made when Scottish Conservatives voted for the Scottish Government’s Council Tax freeze’.

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