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Paul thanks the voters and those who conducted the election itself
and the count:
in the Southern Reporter, Hawick News and Berwickshire News,
11 May 2010
Dear Sir/Editor
I would like, through your paper, to convey my thanks to the
Returning Officer and his team, and the staff at polling stations
and at the count, for their courtesy, diligence and professionalism.
All deserve tremendous credit for a smooth conclusion to the
campaign.
While I would dearly have loved to have the opportunity to
demonstrate what I and my party might have achieved, and I still
hope to do so in the future, I offer my sincere congratulations to
Michael Moore for his victory and wish him every success as MP for
this beautiful constituency and for all who live here. I hope he
will deliver the representation that the area so badly needs after
four decades of neglect by Westminster and, if necessary, we will
apply pressure to ensure this is the case.
I will be forever grateful to my agent and campaign team and all
those many party supporters and activists who supported me
throughout my campaign. I was extremely proud to represent them and
their dedication and passion helped to increase our vote tally and
our vote share, despite the Lib Dems and Tories flooding the seat
with activists from around the UK and seemingly felling the Amazon
rainforest in order to issue an avalanche of leaflets. If ever there
was an argument for state funding of political parties, and tighter
limits on spending, this was it.
To all those thousands of members of the public who I and my team
had the pleasure of meeting in the course of a two year long
campaign, and who have responded to our surveys or taken part in
hustings, I wish to thank you for some very enjoyable discussions.
After so much cynicism about politics, it was tremendous to see so
many of you keen to engage in the campaign. You have provided us
with great feedback and ideas which we hope to use to focus the
SNP’s efforts on those issues of greatest concern to you in the
months and years ahead.
Most importantly of all, I want to thank all 4,497 people
throughout the constituency who rejected the encouragement from
other parties to vote tactically, and who stuck by the SNP. I hope
that, if the current Parliament is able to deliver genuine electoral
reform and a fairer voting system, this will enable our politics to
change in favour of voting for what voters genuinely hope for and
believe in, rather than encouraging them merely to vote against what
they fear. In such a circumstance, I am confident our positive
vision for Scotland will see the SNP do extremely well.
Yours sincerely
Paul Wheelhouse
SNP Candidate for Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk
Dunclutha
High Street
Ayton
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