Brown to face Scottish regiments campaigner
Campaigners against mergers to the Scottish regiments are to put up a candidate against Gordon Brown.
Save the Scottish Regiments’ fundraising secretary Anne McMillan will stand against the Chancellor in the new seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath is a new constituency created by the Scottish boundary changes and takes the place of the old constituencies of Dunfermline East and Kirkcaldy. Both though are solidly Labour seats.
But Ms McMillan is hoping to capitalise on local links to the Black Watch Regiment and dissatisfaction in Scotland at the planned army restructuring.
As the controller of the purse strings, they believe that Mr Brown should take a lion’s share of the responsibility.
Mr McMillan, said: “Gordon Brown is responsible for forcing army chiefs to make defence cuts due to his penny pinching. Demands for cost savings in order to fund hugely wasteful outdated projects such as the Euro fighter project, which was ordered for the cold war period and is now relatively obsolete, is an irresponsible waste of the tax payers money and should instead be used to retain soldiers instead of cutting almost 2,000 jobs in the army.”
She added: “Labour will be amply reminded of their wrongdoing on many issues between now and the general election and I intend to make the electorate of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath aware of Gordon Brown’s part in the intended demise of Scotland’s six historic Army Regiments and in particular The Black Watch Regiment”.
The candidacy is part of the campaigners’ larger plan to ‘punish’ Labour for its decision to merge some of the regiments. It is urging its supporters for vote for anybody but Labour and has endorsed a selection of candidates from the other main parties.
