Champagne Conservatism from Linlithgow's Candidate

For those of you who don't know, and that is probably most of you, Angela Stephenson the Conservative Candidate in Linlithgow and Falkirk East (pictured right) has a day job as Operations Co-ordinator for the Scottish Conservative Party.

You would expect in such a role that she would have been privy to the Party Chairman Eric Pickles edict about front benchers and PPCs not to be seen drinking champagne at the recent Party Conference in Manchester. After all it is an operational procedure to keep an eye on that and their limit of one unit a night of less upper class alcohol. However, the day after Cameron was snapped quaffing champagne the London Evening Standard had another picture (see below).

In it you will see Andrea seated flute in her left hand, behind her from left to right: Cllr Jason Rust, Conservative candidate for Edinburgh South West an unknown as yet Scottish Tory Boy wasn't giving away the identity; John Lamont, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Roxburgh and Berwickshire; and Cllr Mark McInnes, Director of the Scottish Conservative Party.

Now it would be hypocritical of me if I did not point out that I did enjoy the occasional drink, none of it champagne, at my own Party's Conference whilst relaxing in the evening. However, the Tories made a song and dance about not being seen to be drinking champagne, either to be celebrating too soon, or to be too ostentatious. So it really must have been a bad covert operation for the Operations Co-ordinator to manage to be snapped with two of the target Scottish candidates surrounded by bottles of the bubbly and charged flutes in hand.

There still also has been much change on her dormant website since I last reported it's inactivity. One really does wonder if she know what matters to the people of the constituency.