Conservative candidate Ivor Tiefenbrun describes Scots as "so thick"

I must admit when I read the headline in yesterday's Scotsman, I did  a double take and thought “Really?”  Would anyone be so stupid as to say that?  Has The Scotsman got this out of context?
 

Apparently not.  The Conservative candidate Ivor Tiefenbrun has defended Margaret Thatcher's policies and in doing so said "It's only because Scots are so thick that this was swallowed."

Now,  I have to be honest, Ivor isn't the only man to defend Margaret Thatcher's policies. A fairly well known Scot within the world of politics has also done this, not yesterday but during the Glenrothes by-election in 2008. This person said that the Scots didn't mind Thatcher's policies.

Have you guessed who it is yet?

Well it was in fact Wee Eck himself, our very own First Minister and leader of the single issue party itself, the SNP's Alex Salmond.

Who would have thought that he would support the devastation that Thatcher brought to Scotland?

Anyway, I digress. Back to Ivor who has in fact been selected as the Tory candidate for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn.

He claimed Baroness Thatcher had;

"saved our cities" in Scotland and had broken the "corrupt power" of the trade unions as well as "enabling people to buy their own homes" during her 11 years in power.

No-one will argue that allowing people to buy their homes was entirely a bad thing, although we should remember that most councils were then prevented using the money raised from the sale of these homes to build  any more by Thatcher. That’s why we have such an affordable housing crisis today. Ivor Tiefenbrun played a leading role in the anti-devolution Think Twice campaign so isn't always on message with Scots anyway.

Mr Tiefenbrun defended the 1980s governments of Lady Thatcher, whose controversial policies included the unpopular poll tax and wide scale closure of Scottish coal mines.

He said:

"The way Labour work is that they have demonised Thatcher as if she was an evil force.

"It's only because Scots are so thick that this was swallowed."

When asked to explain his comments by The Scotsman, Mr Tiefenbrun said;

"You would have to be thick to accept that" Lady Thatcher had been bad for Scotland.

I am neither a Scot, although I now live here and call this home,  nor am I thick and I can see the damage that Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives did across Scotland in the 1980s. What I can also see is that Labour didn't mend some of the damage either.

During the Glasgow East and Glasgow North East by-elections in the last two years I saw that there are still areas of deprivation which should not exist in this day and age and it is only down to the communities living there that they don't let it beat them.  Yes the Conservatives did damage this country and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Ivor Tiefenbrun continued;

"We have to look at the education system and ask if we have got too many teachers."

Too many teachers?  When did Mr Tiefenbrun last visit a school?

The Tory businessman was last night heavily criticised for his remarks, which included a claim that patients could;

"walk into hospitals and be dead in 48 hours from an infection."

Annabel Goldie has a lot to deal with being the leader of the 4th party in Scotland with just one MP in Westminster and candidates such as Gill Dykes claiming to be an MSP when she isn't, John Lamont who is bored of Holyrood and now Ivor Tiefenbrun who is insulting Scots by calling them "so thick".

I hope Annabel does the decent thing and at the very least insists Mr Tiefenbrun issues an apology, very quickly, or he may just face calls for his resignation from the good folk of Glasgow.