THE predictable bitterness and infighting over nominations for the tiny number of winnable Tory seats for the Scottish Parliament next May has already erupted, with the exclusion from the final short list in Edinburgh Pentlands of two of the city's most experienced councillors, writes Robbie Dinwoodie.
Current Conservative group leader on the city council, Daphne Sleigh, and former leader Brian Meek both fell at the final hurdle in one of the only realistic prospects in the country. It leaves the way clear for two members of the party hierarchy, former Solicitor-General Paul Cullen, and president of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association, David McLetchie.
The fact that neither Councillor Sleigh nor Councillor Meek have made the short list will fuel suspicions that the Tory selection procedure right across the country is going to be skewed in favour of Central Office favourites and office-bearers.
The two councillors declined to comment last night, but one Tory insider said: ''Brian has won 12 elections and Daphne has won six. The other two have won none between them.''
The fall-out from the decision could also spill into Edinburgh West. There, the natural candidate might be considered to be former MP Lord James Douglas-Hamilton. However, it looked likely that if Mr Cullen wins through in Pentlands, Mr McLetchie would become the front-runner in Edinburgh West, where he lives.
The point about Tory jockeying for relatively promising seats is that this would propel these candidates to the top of the regional lists, giving them a strong chance of becoming one of the expected dozen or so Conservatives who have a chance of making it to Holyrood.
Following the Conservative wipe-out last May and the subsequent soul-searching within the party, some feared that once they began to make use of the new proportional voting system for the Scottish Parliament, the same old faces would re-emerge.
Current party chairman is former Aberdeen South MP Raymond Robertson, and it was widely predicted that he would re-emerge in the North-east. Again, even if he did not win a constituency seat outright, he would be well placed to top the regional list in the area.
However, one prominent Tory said yesterday that it would be a disaster if the party failed to win any seats outright and had to rely on a regional list system, which it had condemned, to gain any representation at Holyrood.
''If Malcolm Rifkind could not hold Pentlands, and if two seasoned councillors are not given the chance, then we have no chance there,'' said one local party member.
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