Thereas Villiers flew into Edinburgh from Northern Ireland on Friday morning in order to visit a distillery with Iain McGill, one of our Edinburgh candidates in this May's elections, before driving down to Whitesome for a light lunch provided by the Berwickshire branch in the company of John Lamont, our candidate for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, and some 40 local members. Iain tells us that during her tour she sampled a 40 year old whisky but there was no sign of such indulgence when she rose to give a brief speech on the importance of this May's Holyrood elections and how they represented an opportunity for the Scottish Conservatives & Unionists to build on the recent growth in their support. She also stressed how vital it was both for Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole that the Scottish Conservatives should provide a credible and vigorous opposition to the current Scottish government.
After her speech, Theresa took questions from several members, and a number of these focused on that other approaching date with the ballot box, the EU referendum. In answering these she focused on the need for the party to accommodate differences of opinion over our relations with the EU, for the referendum to be held but for the party to remain united over all those other issues on which we all agree. She then departed for a visit to a local business, Greenvale, in the company of John Lamont, before spending the late afternoon canvassing in Paxton with John Lamont and John Greenwell, one of our local councillors, and then, finally, catching the train at Berwick after a packed day in Edinburgh and the Borders.