Dissatisfaction With Party
Robertson was increasingly more interested in his own constituency than in party politics. In July 1957, while debating highlands roads in the Scottish Grand Committee, he declared that unless the problem was dealt with, "I can assure this Committee that I will have the greatest difficulty remaining in this party"; he also described the Minister John Maclay as "a Treasury lackey and a mouthpiece for officialdom". In January 1959, he seconded an amendment moved by Labour MP Tom Fraser to continue marginal agricultural production grants, but again found Maclay unwilling to help.
This was the last straw and a week later Robertson resigned the whip in protest at the Government's handling of Scottish affairs, declaring he would sit as an Independent Member of Parliament. He stated he continued to support the Conservative position on foreign affairs.
Read more about this topic: David Robertson (UK Politician)
Famous quotes containing the words dissatisfaction with and/or party:
“If there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, good. If there is ferment, so much the better. If there is restlessness, I am pleased. Then let there be ideas, and hard thought, and hard work. If man feels small, let man make himself bigger.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“This will not be disloyalty but will show that as members of a party they are loyal first to the fine things for which the party stands and when it rejects those things or forgets the legitimate objects for which parties exist, then as a party it cannot command the honest loyalty of its members.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)