A Fife SNP councillor has accused a Conservative MEP of turning a windfarm debate at St Andrews into a ”Tory tub-thumping contest”.
David McDiarmid (Howe of Fife and Tay Coast) told The Courier he was so incensed at Struan Stevenson’s reference to ”fraudulent” Scottish Government policies that he engaged in ”heated dialogue” with the MEP across the floor and ”walked out of the meeting in disgust”.
But as Mr Stevenson stood by his speech, meeting chairman Graham Lang said it was ”unfair” for Mr Stevenson to single out the SNP for criticism.
Thursday night’s Is Wind The Answer? meeting was organised by Cameron Community Council and attracted more than 300 people, with speakers including senior member of US billionaire Donald Trump’s executive team. The meeting discussed turbines’ pros and cons amid concerns that mass windfarm development could ruin Scotland’s landscape and may not be the most effective source of renewable energy.
Mr McDiarmid said: ”At one point I thought I had turned up at a Tory party conference although if Struan Stevenson was looking for votes he’d come to the wrong venue.”
He added: ”Wind turbines are too important and serious an issue to the people of north-east Fife. There were a lot of SNP voters in the audience on Thursday night and with his remarks he totally alienated them.”
Continuing his criticism, Mr McDiarmid said: ”He used the word ‘hypocrisy’ aimed at Alex Salmond, but he never mentioned the Tories scrapped the carbon capture plant at Longannet and it was also a Tory government that closed the pits.
”Those like-minded people at the meeting, including myself, deserve to listen to speeches which lay out the facts and not political diatribe.”
Mr Stevenson had spoken of his concerns about ”landscape vandalism” and the costs of offshore windfarms.
He said: ”In my previous speeches, I have often highlighted how SNP policymakers hide the true facts about wind power. I have discussed Scotland’s looming energy crisis and the SNP’s fraudulent use of energy policy as a vehicle for political rather than economic gain.
”Somehow, we now have a situation where people feel ashamed to protest against industrial wind turbines on the basis that they are allegedly green.
”The majority keep silent as our precious landscape is routinely trashed. The SNP propaganda machine makes us feel that this is not a valid reason to object.”
Mr Stevenson declined to respond to Mr McDiarmid’s attack, but a spokesman expressed surprise ”that an elected councillor is so amazed that a politician got up and made a political speech on the issue at hand.”